Cancer (song)
2006 song by My Chemical Romance
"Cancer" is a song by the American rock band My Chemical Romance, released as the eighth track from their third studio album, The Black Parade (2006). A piano ballad, "Cancer" was conceived by Gerard Way and written in eight minutes by him and Rob Cavallo. The song was written by band members Bob Bryar, Frank Iero, Ray Toro, Gerard Way, and Mikey Way, and was produced by the group alongside Cavallo.
The song's lyrics focus on The Patient, the dying protagonist of The Black Parade, and depict his struggles with cancer. "Cancer" was praised by music critics for its sentimentality, though its bleakness was deemed excessive by some; nonetheless, it has been regarded as one of the best songs in the band's discography as a whole. The song has been certified gold in the United States by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), and silver in the United Kingdom by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI). "Cancer" has notably been covered by American duo Twenty One Pilots in 2016.
Background, writing, and recording
My Chemical Romance began writing their third studio album, The Black Parade, in early 2006 at S.I.R. Studios in New York. However, the majority of the album was written after the band moved to the Paramour Estate, a haunted mansion in Los Angeles. During the band's time there, Frank Iero recalled seeing Gerard Way in his room, "submerged" in a sheet of paper with "Cancer" written on it.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Cancer (song)” is 2006 song by My Chemical Romance. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Cancer, song and Chemical, not as a finished interpretation.
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The phrase “2006 song by My Chemical Romance” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
Object files, edition statements, performance records and contemporary criticism preserve different stages of the work’s history. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 23, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5747039. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2006 and 2016.
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This entry incorporates text from “Cancer (song)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.