Cancer and Heart Disease

I've read that cancer has now overtaken heart disease as the leading cause of death in younger people. Of course, the article defined "younger people" as those under 85, which is encouraging to some of us. But up until recently, most of you reading this would have been more likely to die of heart disease than cancer.
So why is cancer so much more frightening? Just look at popular entertainment. Once you're past the testosterone flicks, where people die of car crashes or being blown up in various imaginative ways, it's always cancer, with Alzheimers and AIDS a distant second. In chickbooks or flicks, cancer is the disease of choice to off spunky middle-aged women who might otherwise take over the plot. People only die of heart attacks in books when the author wants to get rid of them quickly.
Do I sound paranoid? Jerry is used to my suddenly screaming obscenities and throwing my book across the room, and just asks with mild interest, "Another one?"
I was talking about this cancer bias with another survivor, and we agreed that part of the reason is that heart attacks are just that: attacks that can come without warning. Boom. "I didn't even know he was sick." We're all aware of heart disease, but we have an illusion of control: we get our cholesterol checked, maybe take statins and low-dose aspirin, try to remember to get some aerobic exercise regularly and we'll probably be okay.
Cancer, on the other hand, sneaks up on you. In the popular medical literature, though thankfully not among my friends, there is a kind of blaming the victim. "Most cancers are due to lifestyle" -- and let me tell you, considering what my lifestyle has been, there are a lot of people out there who by rights ought to be toast by now.
Besides, it takes a long time to get treatment, and the treatments can be costly and nasty, leaving the person bald and sickly-looking. Someone on a treatment regimen for heart disease, on the other hand, loses weight, quits smoking, and quickly starts looking better. Even the surgical options are unfair. A mastectomy is a lot more disfiguring than a by-pass.
So it's no wonder that cancer scares people more than heart disease. It sneaks up and is suddenly in your face. People hearing about it don't quite know what to say.
But once you're in it and have accepted your lot--whatever it is--it's just what is, and you deal with it. Fortunately, I have a dedicated group of friends and relatives to help me. And their support has made the journey,so far, doable.