History Main / TheTopicOfCancer

* Used as FateWorseThanDeath in one version of SpiderMan - It turns out Eddie Brock has cancer which, through hormonal imbalance, causes fits of rage, ruining his life. The symptoms also attract the 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.

* The story "Metastasis" by Dan Simmons is built heavily around this trope. Apparently cancer [[spoiler:is caused by a parasitic race that uses humans as breeding grounds. In effect each tumor is actually a larvae that devours humans from the inside as it reproduces wildly until there is nothing left. The parents then come back and devour their offspring for nourishment occasionally leaving one or two to germinate into an adult]].

-->-- Shouty Guy from MondoMedicals explains cancer.

* The page quote comes from MondoMedicals. Let's just say a certain character is... ''passionate'' about the Topic of Cancer.

* [[TheQuestion Vic Sage]]'s battle with cancer forms one of the main storylines of ''ComicBook/FiftyTwo''. [[RealityEnsues And then he dies of it.]]

* ''MontyPythonsFlyingCircus'': in an animated segment a prince sees a black spot on his face, but ignores it. Then he dies of cancer.

* Sam, the title character in ''WaysToLiveForever'', has leukemia.

* In ''{{Series/House}}'', now that [[spoiler: the oncologist, Wilson, himself has cancer,]] it's an opportunity for the writers to both show more of their relationship with House, and how firsthand knowledge of what cancer actually does to patients affects their reasoning when seeking treatment.

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* ''{{Amber}} Diceless Role Playing''. If characters with Shape Shifting push themselves beyond their limits while suffering from exhaustion or starvation, they can suffer from Primal Chaos Cancer. Some of their cells run wild, consuming normal cells and multiplying quickly. The rogue cells will eventually attack vital organs, appear on the skin and eat the character alive, turning him into an amorphous blob.

* [[TheQuestion Vic Sage]]'s battle with cancer forms one of the main storylines of ''FiftyTwo''. [[RealityEnsues And then he dies of it.]]

->''"CANCER?! DO YOU EVEN KNOW WHAT A CANCER IS?! CANCER IS A SMALL PIECE OF DEATH THAT SLOWLY TAKES OVER A BODY!"''
-->-- Shouty Guy from MondoMedicals explains cancer.

[[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]].

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'''.

There are countless types of cancer, but all share the same defining nature: in a 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 fall-back mechanism meant to destroy the out of control cell before it can cause damage, but once in a while, those emergency killswitch mechanisms 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 [[DrugsAreBad cigarette smoke]]), to exposure to great amounts of radiation (this association with the evils of nuclear power or weapons may be part of the reason for the fear of cancer underlying modern society's perception) 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 went near Hiroshima or Chernobyl, even if they don't smoke, even if they live in a sterile bubble, 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 in 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 a 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.

In it's core, a cancer is the perversion of the things we hold most sacred on the most fundamental level: reproduction, life, growth, fertility. The brightest and most wonderful things in nature twisted and mutated into something frightening, something repulsive and ''wrong'' by a mindless, faceless force that still somehow manages to seem outright malevolent. It is not surprising that just by mentioning the word "cancer", any instance biological horror may instantly become scarier, any scientific experiment more taboo, any associated magic or power evil.

* Used for karmic justice (and the compulsory BodyHorror) in ''FrankenFran'' - a rich villain hires Fran to extend her life and tries to get her killed to steal her research (fortunately, Fran is AmbiguouslyUndead and can live through decapitation). Fran returns to the villain's mansion and finds her ShowingOffTheNewBody - the experimental formula allowed her teleomers to regenerate indefinitely, making her cells immortal... Just as the first side effects start to appear, Fran calmy explains that the only cells not programmed to die of old age are cancer cells. She then walks away, leaving her client "immortal" - as a gibbering pile of semi-liquid flesh.

* Mitsuki Koyama, protagonist of the shojo manga ''FullMoonOSagashite'', has a cancer in her throat played for full terror-tragedy value. In her particular case, her dream is to become an idol singer, but the only way to remove the cancer by the point the story begins involves a surgery that would render her permanently mute.

* A bit of an oddball example is in Tommy Wiseau's ''TheRoom'', wherein the LoveInterest's mom flat-out states that she has terminal breast cancer during one scene. This is promptly forgotten and never mentioned again.

* The series ''BreakingBad'' revolves around the protagonist, Walter White, discovering during the pilot that he has terminal lung cancer. It is this discovery that kick-starts the action of the show.

* In ''TabletopGame/PrometheanTheCreated'', the mysterious sixth Lineage are the "Zeka", Prometheans animated and fueled by radiation that have a lot of disturbing, creepy abilities. Among them are the ability to give other people regular, boring old cancer, but if you want to get freaky, you can give them a tumor with a mouth that can speak to them, or a mind control brain tumor, that is implied to cause endless excruciating pain and leave the victim a helpless puppet with full consciousness but no control over their actions. When Zeka use their powers, their "Disfigurement" usually involves huge cancerous masses growing from within them, boiling, bloating, and pulsating as their skin falls off and their eyes melt. Even when not showing their powers, most of them have signs of radiation poisoning or cancer, such as visible tumors on their faces. Then there are the Carcinoma, which is what you get when Zeka tries to make more of themselves and [[GoneHorriblyWrong fail horribly]]: hideous monstrosities made completely out of cancer, with an alien, incomprehensible, malignant intelligence.
* "HunchbackTheLurching", a fan gameline for the TabletopGame/NewWorldOfDarkness: As a drinking game, take a shot when the lump is described as "Cancerous", "Malignant" or "Tumorous". Just don't blame me when you lose your liver.

* In the original ''{{Civilization}}'', developing a cure for cancer gave you one happy citizen in every single city, no strings attached.

* In Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}, Karkat (who uses the trolltag carcinoGeneticist and the astrological symbol of cancer) admits to John he may have given John's universe cancer.

* Shows up in more than a few Webcomic/{{xkcd}} strips, as [[RealLifeWritesThePlot Randall Monroe's now-wife had been diagnosed with stage-3 breast cancer during their engagement]].

* The drug "Mayfly" from ''{{Empowered}}'' gives you super intelligence, but will kill you within 24 hours from brain cancer (that is, assuming it doesn't just do that without giving you anything in return). ''Unless'' you manage to use your newfound genius in order to survive... as a horrible, grotesque mass of cancerous flesh.

-->--Shouty Guy from MondoMedicals explains cancer.

* One day, the main character of ''{{Phenomenon}}'' sees a flash of unearthly light, hears a strange sound, and falls unconscious. When he wakes up, he's got super-intelligence and even psychic powers. [[spoiler: Turns out he's got a ''massive'' cancer in his brain that by complete coincidence happens to enhance certain functions by pushing against [[90%ofYourBrain rarely activated parts of it.]] [[spoiler: The flash of light was an epileptic hallucination brought upon by the cancer. Oh, and the main character is also dying.]]

* Shows up in more than a few {{XKCD}} strips, as [[RealLifeWritesThePlot Randall Monroe's now-wife had been diagnosed with stage-3 breast cancer during their engagement]].

* In ''TabletopGame/PrometheanTheCreated'', the mysterious sixth Lineage are the "Zeka", Prometheans animated and fueled by radiation that have a lot of disturbing, creepy abilities. Among them are the ability to give other people regular, boring old cancer, but if you want to get freaky, you can give them a tumor with a mouth that can speak to them, or [[HighOctaneNightmareFuel a mind control brain tumor, that is implied to cause endless excruciating pain and leave the victim a helpless puppet with full consciousness but no control over their actions.]] When Zeka use their powers, their "Disfigurement" usually involves huge cancerous masses growing from within them, boiling, bloating, and pulsating as their skin falls off and their eyes melt. Even when not showing their powers, most of them have signs of radiation poisoning or cancer, such as visible tumors on their faces. Then there are the Carcinoma, which is what you get when Zeka tries to make more of themselves and [[GoneHorriblyWrong fail horribly]]: hideous monstrosities made completely out of cancer, with an alien, incomprehensible, malignant intelligence.

** In one episode the Monster of the Week was a man made entirely of cancerous tissue. He could regenerate the ''[[GoodThingYouCanHeal loss of head]]'' and had to [[NauseaFuel eat cancerous tissue]] removed from surgery patients (he worked in a hospital).

* In D&D Book of Vile Darkness - a PlagueMaster PrestigeClass "cancer mage" gets a sentient tumor as a familiar: the entire idea of the Cancer Mage is that cancer is something disgusting, creepy, and in this case [[UnfortunateImplication actually, cosmically evil.]]

* Elizabeta from the manga ''GunslingerGirl'' was a young Russian ballerina who developed bone cancer in her teenage years because she spent a period of her childhood in an area of the Ukraine that was heavily affected by the Chernobyl incident. Due to the generally primitive state of public healthcare in ex-USSR areas, the cancer is not contained properly and by the time Elizabeta arrives in Italy for further treatment, the doctors decide that the best bet would be to amputate her leg before the cancer spreads. Realizing that she will never be able to dance again, Elizabeta tries to kill herself ([[{{Understatement}} it's not a very happy manga]]). This is remarkable because of all the other girls' backstories, this one is the second most detailed (by far) and the most often referenced (usually by people expressing pity over the poor, poor girl with the cancer), while the stories of girls who were nearly murdered, mutilated by car accidents, raped or born with horrific disfigurements get barely a line. The only story that gets more screen time than Elizabeta's is of the girl who was ''used as a living prop in snuff porn films.''

* Used for karmic justice (and the compulsory BodyHorror) in FrankenFran - a rich villain hires Fran to extend her life and tries to get her killed to steal her research (fortunately, Fran is AmbiguouslyUndead and can live through decapitation). Fran returns to the villain's mansion and finds her ShowingOffTheNewBody - the experimental formula allowed her teleomers to regenerate indefinitely, making her cells immortal... Just as the first side effects start to appear, Fran calmy explains that the only cells not programmed to die of old age are cancer cells. She then walks away, leaving her client "immortal" - as a gibbering pile of semi-liquid flesh.
* Elizabeta from the manga GunslingerGirl was a young Russian ballerina who developed bone cancer in her teenage years because she spent a period of her childhood in an area of the Ukraine that was heavily affected by the Chernobyl incident. Due to the generally primitive state of public healthcare in ex-USSR areas, the cancer is not contained properly and by the time Elizabeta arrives in Italy for further treatment, the doctors decide that the best bet would be to amputate her leg before the cancer spreads. Realizing that she will never be able to dance again, Elizabeta tries to kill herself ([[{{Understatement}} it's not a very happy manga]]). This is remarkable because of all the other girls' backstories, this one is the second most detailed (by far) and the most often referenced (usually by people expressing pity over the poor, poor girl with the cancer), while the stories of girls who were nearly murdered, mutilated by car accidents, raped or born with horrific disfigurements get barely a line. The only story that gets more screen time than Elizabeta's is of the girl who was ''used as a living prop in snuff porn films.''
* Mitsuki Koyama, protagonist of the shojo manga FullMoonOSagashite, has a cancer in her throat played for full terror-tragedy value. In her particular case, her dream is to become an idol singer, but the only way to remove the cancer by the point the story begins involves a surgery that would render her permanently mute.

* Doctor Manhattan from {{Watchmen}} is extremely distraught to discover that the radiation emitted by his physical avatar gave his friends cancer. [[spoiler: This has actually been a ploy by Ozymandias,[[MoralEventHorizon who gave them cancer himself]]]]

* The drug "Mayfly" from {{Empowered}} gives you super intelligence, but will kill you within 24 hours from brain cancer (that is, assuming it doesn't just do that without giving you anything in return). ''Unless'' you manage to use your newfound genius in order to survive... as a horrible, grotesque mass of cancerous flesh.

* One day, the main character of {{Phenomenon}} sees a flash of unearthly light, hears a strange sound, and falls unconscious. When he wakes up, he's got super-intelligence and even psychic powers. [[spoiler: Turns out he's got a ''massive'' cancer in his brain that by complete coincidence happens to enhance certain functions by pushing against [[90%ofYourBrain rarely activated parts of it.]] [[spoiler: The flash of light was an epileptic hallucination brought upon by the cancer. Oh, and the main character is also dying.]]

* Scully almost died of alien-induced cancer in TheXFiles. Other abductees were not as lucky.

* In medical tv shows, Scrubs for example, while cancer -is- often shown to be horrible, other types of diseases can be shown to be just as bad at times.

* Averted to hell (or is it played staight? It is supposed to be revulsive) in D&D Book of Vile Darkness - a PlagueMaster PrestigeClass "cancer mage" gets a sentient tumor as a familiar.
** I'd say that a sentient tumor familiar absolutely plays this straight, as the entire idea of the Cancer Mage is that cancer is something disgusting, creepy, and in this case [[UnfortunateImplication actually, cosmically evil.]]

* In PrometheanTheCreated, the mysterious sixth Lineage are the "Zeka", Prometheans animated and fueled by radiation that have a lot of disturbing, creepy abilities. Among them are the ability to give other people regular, boring old cancer, but if you want to get freaky, you can give them a tumor with a mouth that can speak to them, or [[HighOctaneNightmareFuel a mind control brain tumor, that is implied to cause endless excruciating pain and leave the victim a helpless puppet with full consciousness but no control over their actions.]] When Zeka use their powers, their "Disfigurement" usually involves huge cancerous masses growing from within them, boiling, bloating, and pulsating as their skin falls off and their eyes melt. Even when not showing their powers, most of them have signs of radiation poisoning or cancer, such as visible tumors on their faces. Then there are the Carcinoma, which is what you get when Zeka tries to make more of themselves and [[GoneHorriblyWrong fail horribly]]: hideous monstrosities made completely out of cancer, with an alien, incomprehensible, malignant intelligence.
* Here's a drinking game to play while reading "HunchbackTheLurching", a fan gameline for the WorldOfDarkness: take a shot whenever the Hump is described as "Cancerous", "Malignant" or "Tumorous". Just don't blame me when you lose your liver.
* In {{Scion}}, the [[AnthropomorphicPersonification Titan of the Blighted Earth,]] [[CelticMythology Crom Cruach, nemesis of the Tuatha De Danaan,]] is associated with stillbirth, madness, fungi, vermin, rot, ''mutation and cancer'', and has a very strong theme of the "perversion of life". His minions, the giant fomorians, are generally horribly disfigured, and their ugliness is said to often include tumors all over their body.

* [[TropeOverdosed Inevitable]] {{Homestuck}} example: Karkat (who uses the trolltag carcinoGeneticist) admits to John he may have given John's universe cancer.

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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 it's very name has become synonymous with death. A disease who's mere mention provokes feelings of foreboding terror, disgust and paranoia in modern humans: the dreaded Malignant Neoplasm, or in layman's terms, '''Cancer'''.

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 it's very name has become synonymous with death. A disease who's mere mention provokes feelings of foreboding terror, disgust and paranoia in modern humans: the dreaded Malignant Neoplasm, or in layman's terms, ''[[TheDiseaseThatShallNotBeNamed Cancer]]''.

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 it's very name has become synonymous with death. A disease who's mere mention provokes feelings of foreboding terror, disgust and paranoia in modern humans: the dreaded Malignant Neoplasm, or in layman's terms, ''Cancer''.

* The creepy biological macguffin from {{Oni}}, the Chrysalis, is repeatedly described as being like cancer.

* An episode of {{Arthur}} had the school's lunchlady reveal that she had cancer. Significant, I think, in that a kids' show addressed it so openly.
* [[DiscussedTrope Discussed]] in the SouthPark episode Tonsil Trouble. Of course they have to bring it UpToEleven by having activists claim that just having AIDS is way better than having cancer.

* TufVoyaging has a "cancer creature/living tumor" example in the "Meatbeast" that Haviland Tuf proposes as a temporary solution to [[SdrawkcabName {{S'uthlam's}}]] overpopulation induced food shortage.

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Note that this trope isn't just for cases of [[PeopleSitOnChairs cancer appearing in fiction]]: The Topic Of Cancer means that the word, term, or very concept of cancer is used specifically to evoke that semi-rational, paranoid terror and revulsion and creepiness that are associated with cancer, or with implications that cancer is somehow worse in some way than other diseases of conditions.

* In {{Scion}}, the [[AnthropomorphicManifestation Titan of the Blighted Earth,]] [[CelticMythology Crom Cruach, nemesis of the Tuatha De Danaan,]] is associated with stillbirth, madness, fungi, vermin, rot, ''mutation and cancer'', and has a very strong theme of the "perversion of life". His minions, the giant fomorians, are generally horribly disfigured, and their ugliness is said to often include tumors all over their body.

[[TropeOverdosed Inevitable]] {{Homestuck}} example: Karkat (who uses the trolltag carcinoGeneticist) admits to John he may have given John's universe cancer.