Need a cancer to fit a fictional plot

[RPinPA]

Summary: For fictional purposes, looking for a cancer which has a very low survival rate but which a patient might be fighting for 1-2 years

I'm sure that this is actually a fairly common sub-genre of medical questions, authors asking for a disease to fit a story.

I have a lot of side interests, and one of them right now involves writing a play (don't ask me why, I couldn't tell you. Just something inside me that wanted to come out).

A character in the play was a caretaker of a loved one who recently died, and the length of the period since the caretaking began was about two years. Though that could be longer, I don't think I'd want it to be much shorter. So I wrote the line "[profanity] pancreatic Stage IV 5% survival rate cancer is [profanity]!" but that was basically made up on the spot. I have no idea of the survival rate of any cancer. What word could I put in place of "pancreatic" to fit my character's rant? (Very low survival rate, detected late, but patient managed to fight it for over a year).

 

[pinball1970]

Pro

Summary: For fictional purposes, looking for a cancer which has a very low survival rate but which a patient might be fighting for 1-2 years

I'm sure that this is actually a fairly common sub-genre of medical questions, authors asking for a disease to fit a story.

I have a lot of side interests, and one of them right now involves writing a play (don't ask me why, I couldn't tell you. Just something inside me that wanted to come out).

A character in the play was a caretaker of a loved one who recently died, and the length of the period since the caretaking began was about two years. Though that could be longer, I don't think I'd want it to be much shorter. So I wrote the line "[profanity] pancreatic Stage IV 5% survival rate cancer is [profanity]!" but that was basically made up on the spot. I have no idea of the survival rate of any cancer. What word could I put in place of "pancreatic" to fit my character's rant? (Very low survival rate, detected late, but patient managed to fight it for over a year).

Probably should be in sci / fantasy or general section but anyway..
A morbid search will get you some typical survival rate.
Stomach, osophageal and pancreatic should all do the job. Speaking from experience edit: not me obviously, friends / family

 

[RPinPA]

Thank you and I apologize for hitting too close to a painful reality. I'm not planning on treating it lightly.

 

[pinball1970]

Thank you and I apologize for hitting too close to a painful reality. I'm not planning on treating it lightly.

No need to apologize, getting older simply means you know a lot more dead people.
I am interested in the subject too so it's no issue.
Good luck with the book!

 

[Ygggdrasil]

A good source of cancer statistics for the US is the National Cancer Institute's SEER program: https://seer.cancer.gov/statfacts/

For example, according to site, the overall 5-year survival for pancreatic cancer is ~ 9% and for stage IV (metastatic/distant) pancreatic cancer it is 2.9%.

 

[Klystron]

My initial response would also be pancreas, familiar to fans of medical dramas. For a play consider more than just estimated morbidity. Plays concern the individual; so your character can survive or succumb to fit your narrative.

Consider causes. As the author do you want the audience to blame the disease on the lifestyle of the afflicted? Could the afflicted character have avoided their fate by different life choices? Confusion about culpability -- lung disease caused by tobacco use or from the environment or industrial exposure -- can turn the audience for or against a character as you desire.

Consider effects. A verbose character slowly loosing ability to communicate as the play progresses truly impacts the audience and other players. Esophageal or lung cancer where a main character slowly becomes mute and/or wheezing also allows quiet secondary characters to eventually dominate the narrative.

Other than as satire I suggest avoiding the usual cancer cliches although the plot twist where a 'cured' patient rejoices in regained life only to be struck down by unseen metastasis never ceases to 'jerk a tear' and warn the audience against hubris.