My dad was diagnosed at 42 with a rare type of GIST(gastrointestinal stromal tumor) that at the time had 6 known cases in the entire country. Doctors literally gave him 3-6 months to live, maybe 12 with really intensive chemotherapy. Fortunately, he was offered to sign up for an experimental test of Glivec against GIST(Glivec was a known drug at a time, but for something completely unrelated) - with a caveat that he could end up in a control group and be given placebo. He didn't. Glivec was found to be extremely effective against that specific type of cancer and my father has lived another 8 years completely GIST-free(died at 50 due to another cancer that has developed independently of GIST and taken him within 6 months of diagnosis).

So yeah. I know this maybe isn't a super happy story, but not every super bad prediction ends up being true.