What does Cancer mean?

My Chemical Romance: Cancer Meaning

Album cover for Cancer album cover

Cancer Lyrics

Turn away.
If you could, get me a drink of water
'Cause my lips are chapped and faded.
Call my Aunt Marie.
Help her gather all my things
And bury me in all my favorite colors.
My sisters and my brothers.
Still, I will not kiss you.
'Cause...

  1. 1TOP RATED

    #1 top rated interpretation:
    emohairfreak666
    click a star to vote
    Nov 22nd 2006 !⃝

    "Cancer" depicts the most emotional point in the Patient's story. Here the Patient is tired and bedridden from the cancer that is surely killing him. He is starting to come to terms with the fact that he will die, and begins to make arrangements and requests for his inevitable death, ("Call my aunt Marie, help her gather all my things, and bury me in all my favorite colors"). As he is doing so, he realizes that there is still something he just can't quite accept, and that is having to part with the one who loves him the most, his lover ("The hardest part of this is leaving you"). He tells his lover that he will not kiss her, possibly because he wants to sever his connection with her as much as possible to make it easier for him to cope with having to leave her. Also he may be regretful of being spiteful to her like he was in "I Don't Love You", and may feel that he does not deserve her forgiveness, which is a point that is touched on more in "Sleep". He goes on to somewhat apologize for his erratic behavior, saying he's just "soggy from the chemo". Finally he asks her that even if she were to leave him at this moment, he requests just one thing of her, that she'll never marry. ("And if you'd say goodbye today, I'd ask you to be true"). "Cancer" shows that the Patient still has the potential to go to heaven, and that he isn't all bad. This foreshadows his eventual change of attitude in "Famous Last Words".

  2. 2TOP RATED

    #2 top rated interpretation:
    anonymous
    click a star to vote
    Dec 15th 2014 !⃝

    . I interpret this song as a cancer patient who is slowly coming to terms with the fact that he’s going to die. He’s readying himself for his inevitable death “Call my aunt Marie, help her gather all my things” (line 4). But he also realizes that the cancer isn’t the part he’s the most upset about. It’s the fact that he’s leaving his lover behind “the hardest part of this is leaving you” (line 9).
    The patient is telling his lover that he won’t kiss her because he wants to push her away from him, so his death won’t hurt her as much. “I’m awful just to see” (line 11), He’s turning away from her because he wants her memory of him to be when he’s happy and healthy, not when his hair is falling out and he’s getting sicker from the chemotherapy “I’m just soggy from the chemo” (line 15). Cancer has a horrible effect on the body, almost everything is dying, but chemotherapy is even worse. It kills everything all the cells, even the good ones on the off chance that it’ll kill the cancer before it kills you.
    The patient is also getting more depressed because he’s not able to marry his lover before he dies. No dream wedding, no future together, no children, nothing. His life is quickly fading and he knows his time is short, ”we’re counting down the days to go” (line 16) , but the patient is in so much pain he doesn’t care anymore, as long as the pain is gone “it just ain’t living” (line 17). As he’s going, he gives his lover a chance to leave him before he dies “if you say goodbye today” (line 19-20). But the patient has one request, that she stay true, and never forget him.

  3. 3TOP RATED

    #3 top rated interpretation:
    anonymous
    click a star to vote
    Jan 11th 2012 !⃝

    Turn away.
    If you could, get me a drink of water
    'Cause my lips are chapped and faded.
    Call my Aunt Marie.
    Help her gather all my things
    And bury me in all my favorite colors.
    My sisters and my brothers.
    Still, I will not kiss you.
    'Cause the hardest part of this is leaving you.

    This verse is about how 'The Patient' is telling the people he loves to 'turn away' and not watch him while he is suffering but just help him such as getting him a 'drink of water' and calling his 'Aunt Marie'. He wants them to be prepared when he dies and he wants them to know how he wants to go such as being buried in his favorite colors. He's trying to be strong and not say goodbye to his sisters and brothers and not 'kiss them' for the last time because that is the final sign of letting go. He's making the preparations, but he is still attached and is still holding on to his life, although he knows that in order to be at peace he has to die and let go.


    Now turn away
    'Cause I'm awful just to see
    'Cause all my hair's abandoned all my body.
    Oh, my agony.
    Know that I will never marry.
    Baby, I'm just soggy from the chemo.
    But counting down the days to go.
    It just ain't livin'
    And I just hope you know
    That if you say goodbye today
    I'd ask you to be true.
    'Cause the hardest part of this is leaving you.
    'Cause the hardest part of this is leaving you.

    Again he is telling them to turn away and not remember him like this but to remember him in his glory days. He thinks that they will love him less if they see him looking awful and having no hair while the truth is they just want to be able to love him and be with him as much as they can before he dies. He's trying to accept the fact that he's not going to be able to live his life and 'marry' and the fact that he has to spend his last days in agony is making him realize that life's not fair and that he needs to let go. He's saying that the chemo is making him tired and weak and he's given up fighting and trying to stay alive and has realized that he's going to die and is just counting down the days and waiting for it to happen. He realizes that if he has to live his life hooked to machines and in agony that he'd rather be dead because what's the point of living in agony and hating yourself? He's saying that if he dies today he wants people to tell him what they really think of him and how they honestly feel about him and not just sugar coat everything because he has cancer and is sick. He says the hardest part of having cancer is giving up all hope of survival and succumbing to the fact that you might not live to tell your story.

  4. anonymous
    click a star to vote
    Jun 28th 2018 !⃝

    My grandpa died of a cancer. I was a literal crybaby when I heard this song.

  5. anonymous
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    Jun 12th 2017 !⃝

    It's so depressing

  6. anonymous
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    Jan 23rd 2017 !⃝

    5 years ago i lost my brother he have a cancer when i listen this song. i crying hard cause that song really same situation to my brother before hes dying i never kiss her

    i cant stop listening this song i really miss her now.

  7. anonymous
    click a star to vote
    Dec 20th 2016 !⃝

    This song is about the life of someone who is dying of cancer who doesn't want to leave their significant other
    "turn away if you could get me a drink of water cuz my lips are chapped and faded" This means the person is unable to get the water for themselves because they're stuck in bed
    "Call my aunt marie...and bury me in all my favorite colors" this line is about someone knowing they are going to die soon so other people might as well prepare for their death and get all the items that will be left for them
    "I will not kiss you...leaving you" this line is about not wanting to kiss you loved ones because it will probably be the last time and after death, you will only miss them
    "Baby I'm just soggy from the chemo" this line is saying that knowing they're on chemo but they're still going to die is making them depressed and they have been crying but don't want people to know that they were crying so they blame the chemo
    The rest of the song is pretty much saying that if they die today, for their loved one(s) to just accept that they died and they won't come back

  8. kooljohn176
    click a star to vote
    Sep 23rd 2016 !⃝

    This song about ''Cancer'' is like ''love in reverse'' working against his immune system where he's painfully turning away from Love and from his loved ones by not kissing and hugging his brothers and sisters having this disease. Where the Protagonist[cancer patient] is having a difficult time leaving them behind, so they won't catch his anti-love disease to live longer I hope, and not to die by having it upon them. That's why ''the hardest part of this'' for him is to leave them like that without a hug and a kiss that want's them ''to be true'' to themselves in Love.

  9. anonymous
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    Sep 23rd 2016 !⃝

    My mom died of cancer-and I think when he won't kiss the some one in his life is because he dose not want to fall in love and then die the next day.and when he says he's just soggy from the chemo he probably ment he was decompressed and sad literally soggy his/her lips r faded because that's a side effect of demo and he need water......it is really hard to let some one go but when you let them go u aren't u r just pushing it behind u and soon it will catch up because the person u lost is still holding on no matter what

  10. anonymous
    click a star to vote
    Sep 19th 2016 !⃝

    This song is about Cancer. They've wanted to create a song that was very dark, and they achieved just that. So when, he said:
    "If you could get me a drink
    Of water cause my lips are chapped and faded"
    - On the basic level, this could suggest that Way needs hydration, which is very important to cancer patients, because dehydration is a side effect of the cancer.
    " Call my aunt Marie"
    - The fact he asks for his aunt instead of his mother, shows how they're very close.
    " Bury me in all my favorite Colors"
    -We'd know the color will be shaded of black, but he wants people go to his funeral to remember what he was like before his diagnosis.
    "my sisters and my brother, still I will not kiss you"
    - Even though Cancer isn't like a common cold or anything, he still will not kiss because he feels worthless or he does not want to be close to anyone in his time of dying.
    "Cause the hardest part of this is leaving you"
    - Having cancer is the hardest because you'll be leaving the ones he loves.
    "Cause im awful just to see cause all my hairs abandoned all my body"
    - Chemotherapy radiation strips the body of its hair. So, he's losing all of his hair on his body due to it.
    " oh, my agony. How that I will never marry"
    - He's letting us know of his pain, he wont live to have a normal life and marry the one he loves.
    " counting down the days to go"
    -meaning he is anticipating his death.
    "And I just hope you know
    That if you say (if you say)
    Good-bye today (good-bye today)
    I'd ask you to be true (I'd ask you to be true)"
    -If she says goodbye to him, he wants her to be sincere because he doesn’t want to die without giving her closure and a proper goodbye.

  11. anonymous
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    May 19th 2015 !⃝

    I feel as though this song doesn't necessarily have to be about someone dying of cancer, I feel like it can also be related to by anyone anticipating their death to be soon.

  12. anonymous
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    Aug 25th 2012 !⃝

    I think that this song relates to Gerard's past alcoholism.

    When he say's that he's soggy from the chemo he means that he's all soggy from the alcohol and when he says tha he's counting down the days to go he means that he knows that he knows that he's not going to live.

    'Know that I will never marry'--Means that he feels that he will die alone.

    'It just aint living'--He knows that the alcoholic/drug addicted life style isn't a good lifestyle.

    'The hardest part of this is leaving you'----He needs to get away from his girfriend because she is either an alchololic herself which is bad for him or he might be a bad influence on her.

    'Cancer' Is used as a metaphor for the depression/alcoholism eating him away from the inside,like cancer.

  13. anonymous
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    Jun 8th 2012 !⃝

    I think he's thinking about how he'll leave a big hole in with the people he cares about. speaking as somebody who lost a close family friend to cancer last April, I know what he's talking about.

  14. anonymous
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    Mar 28th 2012 !⃝

    I say that yes it is a sad song but what I think is he already wants to die because he doesn't want to live with the pain anymore.

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
  15. anonymous
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    Dec 21st 2011 !⃝

    the fact that it has nothing to do with any of them means the most... its hard to make money off of other peoples emotions and things they really havent dealt with... congrats to them

  16. anonymous
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    May 28th 2011 !⃝

    Yes, the basic is The Patient suffered from cancer. He wants to grant all his own wishes before he died, but he don't have any time to reach his biggest dream: kissing the one he loved. Sorry if it's too stupid, I'm only explain what I'm thinkin' about..

  17. anonymous
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    May 25th 2011 !⃝

    All you who are saying its about the patient are heartless retards ITS A SONG FOR PEOPLE WITH CANCER FOR CHRISTS SAKE!!!!!!!!!!!


    ~~Zodiac Critical

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
  18. anonymous
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    Mar 16th 2011 !⃝

    Does anyone here know what it Actually feels like to have cancer and knowing that you only have a limited time (4 weeks) left on this world to see your mum, dad, brother and haveing that thought that you wont see them again and you realise this when your 10 years old.

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