Cancer: Uncovering the Truth Behind the Disease: 35 Facts

Jack Ruby, the guy who killed Oswald on live TV, claimed that the JFK assassination "was an act of overthrowing the government" and that he had been injected with cancer cells in prison to silence him. By 1966, Ruby was dead from cancer in his liver, lungs, and brain.

27. In 2013, an HIV-positive Colombian man died after his parasitic worm got cancer.

28. The actor who played the dying Maurice Fisher in Inception, Pete Postlethwaite, was really dying of cancer. He died 5 months after the film's release.

29. The Make A Wish Foundation granted 12-year-old leukemia survivor Declan McLean-Pauley's wish to blow a bunch of sh*t up.

30. Vanessa Bayer of SNL was sent to Hawaii on a "Make-a-Wish" trip as a teen because she had leukemia. She beat cancer, graduated from the Ivy League, and now does charity work with the organization.

Jack Hanna (American zookeeper) initially accepted the director position at the Columbus Zoo because he believed Children's Hospital of Columbus had the best care for his daughter, who had been diagnosed with leukemia.

32. J.K. Rowling wrote to Natalie McDonald, a leukemia patient, the ending of The Goblet of Fire a year early. She died before reading the email so Rowling named a character after her. That character was sorted into Gryffindor.

33. Over the objections of their supervisors and colleagues, Dr. Emil Freireich and Dr. Emil Frei tackled children's Leukemia with a combination chemotherapy with 4 different kinds of drugs. Today, the cure rate for this form of cancer is more than 90%.

34. Timothy Ray Brown is the only human ever cured of HIV. He had the virus for 11 years before developing leukemia. When he was given a bone marrow transplant, the HIV virus disappeared. His blood has been studied for years but there’s still no definitive answer as to why he recovered.

35. After visiting with Humphrey Bogart, who was suffering from esophageal cancer, Spencer Tracy gave Bogart a pat on the shoulder and said "Goodnight, Bogie." Bogart placed his hand on Tracy's and replied: "Goodbye, Spence." Bogart fell into a coma and died the next day.