and yet i keep reading about, hearing about how those who survive one type of cancer end up getting another type of cancer... it's called "second cancer..."
My mother was diagnosed at the earliest stage of colon cancer and had surgery. Four years later she developed a tumor on her kidney which was removed (kidney too). About 8 years after that, more colon surgery. Then a tumor on her lung which was removed. The oncologist said they were all the same cancer (original colon cancer) but developed in different places. Finally, 19 years after her first surgery, her body was full of tumors (the doc/hospital told me that they had never seen so many tumors) and she died.
So she was a "survivor" in the sense that she went a full 8 years with nothing discernible but she was never "cured".