History Main / TheTopicOfCancer

* ''ComicBook/{{Captain Marvel|MarvelComics}}'': Possibly '''the''' classic Creator/MarvelComics example is ''ComicBook/TheDeathOfCaptainMarvel''. It starts in ''Captain Marvel'' #34 when Mar-Vell stops the villain Nitro from stealing a container of DeadlyGas, which leaks during the fight. Mar-Vell manages to reseal it and eventually is given an antidote in time while unconscious, but the gas' carcinogenic effects later give him fatal cancer, albeit suppressed for years by his Nega-Bands until it mutates past their resistance and making it impossible to treat without assistance from the Kree medical community -- which, needless to say, is a non-starter for a traitor like himself. There are also alternate universes where Mar-Vell's cancer is actually cured [[NiceJobBreakingItHero with disastrous results]]. A ''ComicBook/WhatIf'' universe turned his cancer into a contagious plague that took the life of the Thing and numerous Kree and Skrull. ''ComicBook/TheThanosImperative'' showed another had the EldritchAbomination group known as the Many-Angled Ones turn Mar-Vell's cancer into a way to transform Earth's heroes into their soldiers, creating the Cancerverse.

** Used as a FateWorseThanDeath in one version of ComicBook/{{Venom}}'s origin. It turns out that Eddie Brock has cancer which, through hormonal imbalance, causes fits of rage, ruining his life. The symptoms also attract [[TheSymbiote the Venom symbiote]] to him. The symbiote wants to take over Peter but ends up attached to Brock and unable to switch hosts again. It has the power to stop the cancer from spreading but can't afford to cure it as it relies on it for food. This leaves Brock superpowered, angry, and in constant pain -- for the rest of his life. It ended up being cured sometime later thanks to Mr. Negative soon after Eddie surrendered the symbiote to be bidden off. In ''ComicBook/VenomDonnyCates'', it is suggested that [[spoiler:Eddie's cancer wasn't actually cancer, but the symbiote manipulating his mind and body to make him think he did, thus they could stay together]].

[[CrapsackWorld There are all manners of terrible diseases out there]], deadly and incapacitating, annoying and disfiguring, and even a few truly horrifying [[FateWorseThanDeath fates worse than death]].

There are countless types of cancer, but all share the same defining nature: in cancer, the reproduction of cells goes out of control. Instead of dividing and multiplying in an orderly fashion, as they should, the cells multiply chaotically and violently without stopping, invading nearby parts of the body, and sometimes even spreading further through the bloodstream or lymphatic system. Ideally, cells have several countermeasures against such a destructive chain reaction starting, many emergency fallback mechanisms meant to destroy the out-of-control cell before it can cause damage, but once in a while, those emergency killswitch mechanisms [[FailsafeFailure fail]].

The causes of cancer are numerous, and can include anything from old age to exposure to certain chemicals (such as the ones found in [[SmokingIsNotCool cigarette smoke]]), to exposure to great amounts of radiation (this association with cancer may be part of the reason for modern society's fear of nuclear power or weapons) to sheer bad luck. The truth is, that in the end, nobody can say for sure who will have cancer and when. Right now, your father may be developing cancer, or your girlfriend, or your dog. Even if they've never even been near [[UsefulNotes/AtomicBombingsOfHiroshimaAndNagasaki Hiroshima]] or UsefulNotes/{{Chernobyl}}, even if they don't smoke or drink, even if they live in a sterile bubble, even if they run 6 miles a day and eat nothing but kale, '''they may still develop cancer'''. There is no way to tell for sure without checking, and even if they turn out not to have cancer right now, nothing can assure that they won't develop one tomorrow, or in three minutes.

It could happen to anyone, any time, and they would die a slow, excruciating death as their bodies destroy themselves from the inside because of a tiny programming error in the coding of a single cell that prevented it from ever hearing the order to "stop multiplying". There would be few symptoms at the beginning, all of them easy to miss, but towards the end, BodyHorror will hit in full force as the tumors, black and slimy or bloated and red would become visible over the skin. Or perhaps, they never will, and all you would see is the patient writhing in agony for days before finally finding release in death. Or they could just go out with a single seizure, out of the blue...

Even if the cancer is discovered and medical treatment is available, the fact that cancer is essentially an out-of-control aspect of the living body means that the only way to treat it effectively is ''to kill the growing body''. Chemotherapy for cancer involves intentionally poisoning a person just enough not to kill them, but to (hopefully) kill the tumors growing in them. The side effects are horrific: over the course of the long, long treatment, chemotherapy and radiotherapy will cast the patient down into the dark depths of the UncannyValley, causing them to slowly and painfully lose anything they had of the image of a healthy human being. Hair will fall, nails will break, fat will disappear. They will vomit, and they will wither, and they will cry silently as they are transformed into pale, skinny mockeries of the human form not by a disease, ''but by the cure'', helplessly watching this cruel world from behind lifeless, sleepy eyes.

But in the world of fiction (and according to popular belief, [[TruthInTelevision in real life as well]]), one disease stands tall and terrible above the rest -- a disease so deadly, so silent, so inevitable, so ''evil'', that its very name has become synonymous with death. A disease whose mere mention provokes feelings of foreboding terror, disgust and paranoia in modern humans: the dreaded Malignant Neoplasm, or in layman's terms, '''cancer'''.

* ''VideoGame/LikeADragonInfiniteWealth'': Series protagonist Kazuma Kiryu has been diagnosed with cancer that has caused his hair to turn gray and [[BloodFromTheMouth him to cough up blood]], and knows that his aid of Ichiban Kasuga will be TheLastDance for him.

* ''ComicBook/CaptainMarvelMarvelComics'': Possibly '''the''' classic Creator/MarvelComics example is ''ComicBook/TheDeathOfCaptainMarvel''. It starts in ''Captain Marvel'' #34 when Mar-Vell stops the villain Nitro from stealing a container of DeadlyGas, which leaks during the fight. Mar-Vell manages to reseal it and eventually is given an antidote in time while unconscious, but the gas' carcinogenic effects later give him fatal cancer, albeit suppressed for years by his Nega-Bands until it mutates past their resistance and making it impossible to treat without assistance from the Kree medical community -- which, needless to say, is a non-starter for a traitor like himself. There are also alternate universes where Mar-Vell's cancer is actually cured [[NiceJobBreakingItHero with disastrous results]]. A ''ComicBook/WhatIf'' universe turned his cancer into a contagious plague that took the life of the Thing and numerous Kree and Skrull. ''ComicBook/TheThanosImperative'' showed another had the EldritchAbomination group known as the Many-Angled Ones turn Mar-Vell's cancer into a way to transform Earth's heroes into their soldiers, creating the Cancerverse.