Luciano Pavarotti left the hospital into which he was admitted for pancreatic cancer surgery and went to his New York home, after a long period in which his survival chances were quite minimal and the doctors' prognosis rather bleak.

The Italian newspaper 'La Stampa' called the tenor's house and asked him about his plans for the tour that got canceled when the doctors discovered a malignant tumor in his pancreas.

Pavarotti announced that he has no intention of retiring from the music stage before finishing his farewell tour.

'I want to finish my tour. I can't give precise dates because I'll have to discuss it with the doctors, but I think I'll start again next year', the 70-year-old tenor said over the phone.

And the doctors that treated him are very optimistic about his odds, despite the fact that pancreatic cancer can be diagnosed only at a later stage and is generally considered that very few patients that have it stand good chances of survival.

Yet Pavarotti doesn't seem to have lost his sense of humor and is keen on approaching his disease on more 'philosophical' terms: 'In my misfortune I was quite lucky. You see, I've had everything from life. If everything is taken away, the Good Lord and me are quits'.

Fortunately, that won't be the case and anxious fans will get a chance to see him again on stage in 2007. The tenor also added that he will be moving soon into his house in Italy to continue his recovery.