Actress Melora Hardin, 54, Remembers Her Old Dance Teacher, the Iconic Patrick Swayze, as She Competes on ‘Dancing with the Stars’; Swayze Passed From Pancreatic Cancer in 2009

Hardin, best known for her role as Jan Levinson on the hit comedy series The Office, has been tearing up the dance floor on season 30 of DWTS. Just last night, the 54 year old took to the stage twice to perform a foxtrot to the song Killer Queen and a Viennese Waltz to We Are the Champions scoring a grand total of 38 out of 40 for the night.

Hardin is clearly a talented dancer, but she’s also hoping her childhood jazz lessons from Dirty Dancing‘s legendary male lead will translate into more killer performances. In a recent interview, she spoke of the time Swayze taught jazz at his mother’s dance studio when Hardin was 13.

"Patrick was so hot," Hardin said. "Literally, I'd been a ballerina, just ballet, ballet, ballet from the time I was 5 until Patrick came to our ballet studio. His sister was an amazing ballerina, and his mother was a teacher."

Swayze had all of the young girls fawning over him with both his style and his talent.

"He'd drive up on his motorcycle with his leather jacket and his tight jeans and he would saunter into class and all of us 13-year-old girls would swoon," she explained. "He was a wonderful teacher, a very kind man."

But dance lessons isn’t Hardin’s only link to Swayze. She was also cast as Baby in the TV version of Dirty Dancing in 1988. Now, she’s hoping her connections to the classic film will necessitate a DWTS win for the actress.

"I mean come on, wouldn't that be cool and be like the magic of Baby?" she said. "It would be like the magic that comes along with being part of Dirty Dancing."

Swayze's Cancer Battle

Swayze was first diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in March 2008, and he later passed away at the too-young age of 57, after fighting the disease for over a year. Swayze died in September 2009.

Remembering Iconic '80s and '90s Actor Patrick Swayze Who Passed from Pancreatic Cancer in 2009

The actor first began experiencing symptoms of pancreatic cancer in December 2007, but he didn't realize it at the time he thought he was just having digestive issues. Swayze wrote in his 2009 memoir, The Time of My Life, how he thought the bloated feeling would just go away on its own.

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"I had been having some digestive trouble," he wrote. "Mostly acid reflux and a kind of bloated feeling, for a few weeks. I've had a sensitive stomach my whole life, so I hadn't thought much of it, but lately, I just couldn't shake the constant discomfort."

Pancreatic Cancer Detection

Pancreatic cancer is an aggressive disease that is difficult to detect because symptoms including jaundice and weight loss typically present at a later stage in the cancer's development. In a previous interview with SurvivorNet, Dr. Anirban Maitra, the co-leader of the Pancreatic Cancer Moon Shot at MD Anderson Cancer Center, explains what he typically sees when patients develop this disease.

RELATED: If You're A First Degree Relative of Someone With Pancreatic Cancer, Screening and Surveillance Could Save Your Life; Here's Why

"Because the pancreas is inside the abdomen often doesn't have symptoms that would tell you that something is wrong with your pancreas," he says. "By the time individuals walk into the clinic with symptoms like jaundice, weight loss, back pain or diabetes, it's often very late in the stage of the disease."

Detecting Pancreatic Cancer Early Is Crucial

Parents, siblings and children of someone with pancreatic cancer are considered high risk for developing the disease because they are first-degree relatives of the individual. PGVs (pathogenic germline variants) are changes in reproductive cells (sperm or egg) that become part of the DNA in the cells of the offspring. Germline variants are passed from parents to their children, and are associated with increased risks of several cancer types, including pancreatic, ovarian and breast cancers. Germline mutations in ATM, BRCA1, BRCA2, CKDN2A, PALB2, PRSS1, STK11 and TP53 are associated with increased risk of pancreatic cancer.

Jessica Everett, a genetic counselor at NYU Langone's Perlmutter Cancer Center, encourages people in this category to look into possible screening options.

"If you're concerned about pancreatic cancer in your family, start by talking to a genetic counselor to learn more about your risk and what options you have," Everett said.

Contributing: Anne McCarthy

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