Cancer does suck. I know one guy who's been living in mutual tolerance with terminal prostate cancer for years and unless something changes, there's no reason it can't go on like this for years to come, but he has to be very careful about overstressing his body or things could change... and in Fantacie's case, the melanomas had been there, growing very slowly for almost a decade but then something changed, and that was that... I had a coworker die of cancer too, he went from fine to dead in a few months, and I had a high school friend whose fiancé died from a brain tumour they didn't find out about until after he went into a coma. From fine to brain-dead in hours. But as awful as it is, it's not the only nasty surprise that could end it all. My dad died of sudden cardiac death eleven years ago, his father had a stroke three years ago, and then there are external causes like auto accidents or industrial explosions, random snipers and bombs at the finish line.
I'm just thankful I got to let Fantacie end it in comfort, because no matter what the nurse tells you, "unplugging" (feed/water) is NOT a quiet and peaceful way for a human to go, the body fights it every step of the way, and as I understand, dying from cancer is highly painful. Sometimes we treat animals better than we treat humans... but that's my own gripe, and I'm not trying to spark a debate on euthanasia on Alchemist's prayer thread!
Every day we all roll the dice, we should just be thankful we're still here to roll them.