History Main / LittlestCancerPatient

* Common bait-and-switch scam on Website/{{Facebook}}. The likes that users are told will "let this girl know you support her" will become apparent endorsements of a quack remedy or a get-rich-quick scheme as soon as the scammer decides to change the page content. [https://www.consumeraffairs.com/news/like-farming-facebook-scams-look-before-you-like-042215.html]

-->-- '''Creator/CleolindaJones''', "[[http://cleolinda.livejournal.com/112010.html The Day After Tomorrow in Fifteen Minutes]]"

* ''Literature/SharpObjects'': Camille's younger sister Marian was described as constantly ill and frail, TooGoodForThisSinfulEarth, and died in childhood. [[spoiler: Subverted when it's revealed that Marian died not from disease but instead from her mother poisoning her to as a result of Munchausen by proxy.]]

* Ben Stone's son Cal on ''Series/{{Manifest}}'' suffers from leukemia. [[spoiler: Before the fateful plane ride Cal's prognosis didn't look good, but luckily for him after time traveling five and a half years in the future [[ScienceMarchesOn cancer research has progressed enough]] that Cal is a perfect match for an experimental treatment that could save him.]]

* ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog'' has Maria, a young girl suffering from a fictional auto-immune disease called [=NIDS=]. [[UltimateLifeform Shadow]] was created to help find a cure for her. Shadow and Maria became LikeBrotherAndSister and [[spoiler: during the GUN-raid, Maria was shot and killed while helping Shadow escape to Earth]].

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Superjail}}'': In "Mr. Grumpy-Pants," Jailbot accidentally picks up a little girl from a children's hospital and brings her back to the jail. One of the inmates protects her, and mistakes the word on her hospital bracelet ("Cancer") for her name (which he pronounces "Sanser"). The cast of depraved inmates who usually spend an episode inflicting {{Slapstick}} violence on each other immediately become Sanser's doting protectors, playing games and reading her bedtime stories. The ContractualImmortality is played partially straight. [[spoiler: She dies (sort of) on-screen from organ failure as a result of cancer, not by the violence typical of this SadistShow. The other characters' usual ComedicSociopathy is jarringly replaced by expressions of genuine grief.]] Except for [[UnsympatheticComedyProtagonist The Warden]], of course.

* A ''WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls'' fan fiction, "Death Of A Powerpuff Girl", dealt with a classmate nicknamed "Blueberrie" (as her mother baked blueberry muffins for the class) who had leukemia. At a sleepover with the girls, Bubbles sneaks some Chemical X in Blueberrie's water, which winds up giving her Powerpuff superpowers, but it doesn't cure her. She becomes a fourth Powerpuff Girl member, helping them on their daily activities but starts suffering spells of dizziness. One day, a powerful alien monster attacks Townsville, its ray felling the girls. [[HeroicSacrifice Blueberrie flies up]] and [[TakingTheBullet takes the full force of the alien's ray]]. The girls defeat the monster (with Bubbles going through UnstoppableRage during it), but Blueberrie dies at the end (most likely from her injuries). At her funeral, Blueberrie's parents give Bubbles the comfort of knowing that as a Powerpuff Girl, Blueberrie had been at her happiest in many months.

* ''Franchise/SpiderMan'': ''Amazing Spider-Man #248: "The Kid Who Collects Spider-Man"'', features one of these. The story itself was re-written and adapted for an episode of ''WesternAnimation/SpiderManTheAnimatedSeries''.

* The [[TropeCodifier Trope Codifiers]] for the sports movie version would probably be either the 1948 film ''The Babe Ruth Story'', [[VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory loosely based on the famous anecdote]] of Babe Ruth hitting a home run in the 1926 World Series for osteomyelitis patient [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnny_Sylvester Johnny Sylvester]], or the 1942 film ''The Pride of the Yankees'', which features Lou Gehrig swearing he'll make two home runs in the World Series for a sick boy named Billy.

** Dakota Fanning also had a role as a kid with leukemia who'd been in a car accident. That's Littlest Cancer Patient UpToEleven right there.

* Deconstructed with the titular Oskar from ''Oskar and the Lady in Pink'', who is diagnosed with Leukemia and is expected to die very soon. However, he hates being [[IJustWantToBeNormal treated differently than other children]] because of his condition, feels more like he's a burden than a person and calls his parents "[[DirtyCoward cowards]]" when they are [[AdultFear scared of meeting him face-to-face]]. The movie expands on this, by changing Oskar's dynamic with the Lady in Pink, [[note]]Who was comparable to a nanny and worked in the hospital, in the movie she is a pizza baker who delivers her goods to the hospital[[/note]] he takes [[IntergenerationalFriendship an instant liking to her]] since she is the only adult who doesn't patronize him.

* RyanDan's song [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gg4zxY1vF1w "Tears of an Angel"]] is a poignant tribute to [[AdultFear their four-year-old niece]], [[LittlestCancerPatient who died of leukemia]] while they were [[HarsherInHindsight recording their 2007 album]].

* RyanDan's song [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gg4zxY1vF1w "Tears of an Angel"]] is a poignant tribute to [[AdultFears their four-year-old niece]], [[LittlestCancerPatient who died of leukemia]] while they were [[HarsherInHindsight recording their 2007 album]].

* In ''Film/ThankYouForSmoking'', the anti-smoking MoralGuardians [[ExploitedTrope attempt to use "Cancer Boy" as a trump card]] in a television appearance against tobacco lobbyist Nick Naylor. This move ends up backfiring -- Naylor manages to convince audiences ''and the patient himself'' that the MoralGuardians ultimately [[InspirationalMartyr want him to die because it'd help their cause]], while swaying favor towards the tobacco industry by claiming that they don't want to lose a valuable customer. Senator Finistirre complains to his aide for screwing up by getting a bald, but otherwise healthy-looking teenager to make their point, and that they lost to Naylor because the Littlest Cancer Patient they picked wasn't sick ''enough''.

* In ''Film/ThankYouForSmoking'', the anti-smoking MoralGuardians attempt to use "Cancer Boy" as a trump card in a television appearance against tobacco lobbyist Nick Naylor. It backfires, after which Senator Finistirre complains to his aide that the Littlest Cancer Patient they picked wasn't sick enough. (Specifically, it backfires because Naylor claims the MoralGuardians want Cancer Boy dead [[InspirationalMartyr because it'd help their cause]], while the tobacco industry doesn't want to lose a valuable customer.)

* Yuuya, the cute IllBoy from the seventh and eighth volumes of CLAMP's ''Manga/TokyoBabylon'' qualifies, although he has a rare kidney disease rather than cancer. Not only does he rack up massive Moe points with the audience, he's also [[UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom the indirect cause]] of [[spoiler:Seishirou's eye being destroyed]], as his mother [[spoiler:crossed the DespairEventHorizon, then [[LoveMakesyouCrazy went batshit crazy]] and tried to tear Subaru's kidney out, and instead ended up gouging his Seishirou's eye out right in front of him]]... resulting in even more [[BreaktheCutie angst and woe]].

* In one episode of ''Anime/{{Vandread}}'', while tending to one planet where the residents are largely ill due to bad conditions in their atmosphere, Bart strikes an InterGenerationalFriendship with a little girl named Shirley who loves to hear his exaggerated tales of what they've gone through up till this point. She is happy to hear all that and begins working on a doll bearing his resemblance, which lets people know they existed and left something behind. When a Harvester Fleet shows up to try and kidnap some of the population, Bart goes into PapaWolf mode and does a YouShallNotPass on them. Unfortunately, Shirley [[TearJerker dies from her illness]] while he was protecting the planet, and was never able to sew the doll's hair on... so Bart instead [[ImportantHaircut shaves his head]] {{bald|OfAwesome}} to match the doll she made, which he subsequently wears around his neck as a charm.

* In a filler arc of ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'', a group of Genin from the Hidden Star village use a special meteorite to train, which amplifies their chakra but puts a great strain on their bodies. The youngest of these is one of the unfortunate ones whose body cannot handle the strain, and after looking at his damaged chakra network with his Byakugan, Neji states that the boy doesn't have long to live. It doesn't need to be said that he makes a full recovery, right? Hooray for [[HealingHands Tsunade.]]

* "The Kid Who Collects ComicBook/SpiderMan", a classic Spidey story (''The Amazing Spider-Man'' #248), features one of these. The story itself was re-written and adapted for an episode of ''WesternAnimation/SpiderManTheAnimatedSeries''.

* ''ComicBook/{{Supergirl}}'': In ''[[ComicBook/Supergirl2005 Way of the World]]'' storyline Supergirl tries to save Thomas Price, a little boy who suffers from terminal cancer. She goes so far to promise she will cure him. Subverted because she ''fails''.
* Issue ten of ''ComicBook/AllStarSuperman'' features these, with it being mentioned that Franchise/{{Superman}} makes regular trips to hospitals to try and give some comfort to terminally ill children. As the story deals with Superman facing his own approaching death, the issue also features attempts made to cure his own condition. When this ultimately fails, he's not at all bothered, explaining that the unsuccessful attempts to repair his Kryptonian body would easily cure any human illness. The issue ends with Superman returning to the hospital and apologizing that he won't be able to make it for the next trip... but the children would all be going home before then anyway.

A particularly risky form of TheWoobie, which is much more likely ([[Administrivia/TropesAreTools though not certain]]) to fail than be successful with the audience. The Littlest Cancer Patient, as you may have guessed from the title, is a small child, rarely over the age of twelve, with some form of terminal disease - although they may be in recovery. Cancer couldn't kill them, and neither can a small apocalypse. This character's sole [[RuleOfEmpathy reason]] for existence is to [[{{Glurge}} tug your heartstrings so hard]] they're torn from your chest.

* ''John Lennon and Me'' is set in a hospital ward for seriously ill children, so basically all of the children in the show qualify as this.

* Bailey Graffman in ''The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants'', though she is a bit snarkier than the typical version of this trope.

* ''Literature/TheFaultInOurStars'' subverts this to hell and back. The three main protagonists, Hazel, Gus, and Isaac all have some form of cancer, but they do not exist to tug at heartstrings. Hazel especially calls out all the cancer cliches that exist within this trope. YMMV on whether it goes back to relying on this trope in the end though.
* ''Literature/TheRadix'': Subverted. Andrea Starr, a pretty 4-year-old girl with spastic cerebral palsy, is mentioned in the beginning. Since the focus of the story is a search for {{Panacea}}, you could expect her to play some role in it. However, she's never mentioned again.

* Bailey Graffman in ''The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants''.
* The book and movie ''Literature/ThankYouForSmoking'' has its main character deliberately set up to share a talk show stage with a Littlest Cancer Patient and thus be ruined; he manages to actually get out of it with better publicity than before. Parodied in that afterwards, he is revealed as a hired actor.
* Creator/ConnieWillis' novel ''Passage'' has Maisie, on the list for a heart transplant, but she is a tough kid; she reads as many books as she can get about ''disasters'', to remind herself that death happens to everyone. Her mother, on the other hand, is in deepest denial. None of this affects her status as TheWoobie.
* Subverted in Tom Clancy's ''Literature/RainbowSix''. Terrorists taking over a Spanish theme park take a group of tourists hostage, including a contingent of terminally ill children, one of whom is the very incarnation of the trope, the little girl cancer patient in a wheelchair who's just so damned "nice". Then when their demands are refused, [[MoralEventHorizon they shoot her in the back and leave her corpse to wheel out the front gate, still in the wheelchair.]] Needless to say, while the other terrorists are taken out quickly and cleanly, the executioner receives a rifle bullet to the spleen (courtesy of the sniper who watched him kill the LCP) [[AssholeVictim An extremely slow]] [[LaserGuidedKarma and painful death follows.]] To be fair, the squad's leader (Ding Chavez) [[WhatTheHellHero makes his displeasure known to the sniper after the mission]]... [[PayEvilUntoEvil but no one]] ''really'' is displeased.
* OlderThanRadio: Although it's consumption she has, little Eva in ''Literature/UncleTomsCabin'' [[{{Glurge}} definitely qualifies]]. When she dies a peaceful and saintly death, all the slaves present convert.

* Helen Burns from ''Literature/JaneEyre'' seems to embody this trope along with TooGoodForThisSinfulEarth.
* Beth March from ''Literature/LittleWomen''. [[TearJerker Played heartbreakingly well]].
* Toby in James Morrow's ''City of Truth''. In which nearly everything is played for laughs, but the illness of the protagonist's son is truly heart-breaking. Morrow loves this sort of MindScrew.
* Éric-Emmanuel Schmitt's ''Oscar and the Lady in Pink'' is this trope at its worst.
* Laura and Eileen from ''Laura und der Silberwolf'' ("Laura and the Silver Wolf") by Antonia Michaelis.
* The protagonist in the short story Daddy's World is a combination of this and AndIMustScream.
* Dinah the little blind girl in ''Literature/TheLangoliers'' isn't terminal per se, although she is on the flight to get an operation to fix her eyes. And then she gets [[SubvertedTrope stabbed in the heart]].
* Sam, the eleven-year-old main character from ''Literature/WaysToLiveForever'' (twelve in the film adaptation).
* One of the patients in the hospital ward that the protagonist of ''Penny from Heaven'' stays in is a little girl with blood cancer. [[spoiler:She doesn't survive.]]
* Akkie, the 12-year-old girl from the Dutch book ''Achtste-groepers huilen niet'' (Sixth Graders don't cry) by Jacques Vriens, as well as the movie adaption. [[spoiler:She doesn't survive.]]

* Deconstructed with the titular Oskar from ''Oskar and the Lady in Pink'', who is diagnosed with Leukemia and is expected to die very soon. However, he hates being [[IJustWantToBeNormal treated differently than other children]] because of his condition, feels more like he's a burden than a person and calls his parents "[[DirtyCoward cowards]]" when they are [[AdultFear scared of meeting him face-to-face]]. The movie expands on this, by changing Oskar's dynamic with the Lady in Pink, [[note]]Who was comparable to a nanny and worked in the hospital, in the movie she is a pizza baker who delivers her goods to the hospital[[/note]] he takes [[IntergenerationalFriendship an instant liking to her]] since she is the only adult who doesn't patronize him.

* ''Series/{{Seinfeld}}'':
** The show plays this one for laughs. In "The Wink", Kramer accidentally sells George Steinbrenner's birthday card to a sports memorabilia shop, who then gives it to a terminally ill kid. Paul O'Neill then has to hit two home runs in order to get it back.
--->'''Kramer:''' Two? Sure kid, yeah. But then you gotta promise you'll do something for me.\\
'''Bobby:''' I know. Get out of this bed one day and walk again.\\
'''Kramer:''' Yeah, that would be nice. But I really just need the card.
** Also subverted with Donald the Bubble Boy. Lacking an immune system and forced to live in a plastic bubble, he's a bitter and rude boy who's still completely beloved by his community.
* Parodied on ''Series/ArrestedDevelopment'', where Maeby assumes the identity of a teenage girl with a terminal disease called "B.S." in order to make some quick cash. Nobody realizes that "Surely Fünke" (Surely, as in [[MeaningfulName the opposite of Maybe...]]) isn't a real person.

* Subverted on ''Series/TheRiches'' when Dahlia sees a young boy in a wheelchair and bald head holding a sign asking for donations for his cancer treatments. A group of women talk about how brave the kid is and giving him some money. After they leave, Dahila (a con artist herself) softly tells the kid he's "doing a good job" but needs to shave his head more often to avoid fuzz and gives tips on acting more sickly. The boy smiles back, proving he's perfectly okay and just scamming people.
* One ''Series/StargateSG1'' episode had a bald little kid genetically engineered by the [[StarfishAliens Reetou]] to [[AFormYouAreComfortableWith communicate with Stargate Command without panicking them]]. They were pretty rushed and he ended up in a hospital bed suffering the effects of imminent organ failure in multiple systems and ended up being taken off by the Tok'ra to become a host; he was a much more understated and reasonably done example than most on this page.
* ''Series/{{House}}'':
** House shows little sympathy towards his Littlest Cancer Patient and is cynical about everyone else's reactions. Of course, that's the point of the character. It should also be noted that this episode provided some good mockery of Chase when [[spoiler:the twelve-year-old girl talked him into kissing her.]] However, House was substantially nicer to her (at least to her face) than most of his patients, and when she explained to him why she didn't want to die yet by asking, "Who would take care of Mom?" he looked the closest he's ever come on the show to crying. A bit of a case of using the trope for a [[PetTheDog Pet the Dog moment]] - it showed that House is human after all. He just refuses to patronize the kids by treating them any differently because of their illness, which probably stems from his own experience with being disabled.
** There are [[TheWoobie Wilson's]] patients. "Bald-headed cancer kids" is probably the kindest thing House has said about them...
** PlayedForLaughs rather amusingly lately when Wilson was caring for an LCP whose mother wasn't allowed into the hospital because of a CDC-related lockdown; despite his sweet, well-meaning attempts, he kind of fails at comforting her, and gets a stuffed lamb in the face for his trouble.
** Mocked in the episode "Here Kitty" where there is a cat that appears to have the ability to predict a person's imminent death by seeking out that person's company. House tests this by bringing the "therapy cat" into the hospital's child pediatric ward and sets the cat amongst the children.

* In the ''Series/{{Torchwood}}'' episode "Dead Man Walking," Owen has a PetTheDog moment with the Littlest Leukemia Patient, who explicitly states that he's gonna die anyway and doesn't want the second shot of chemo the mean old doctors are giving him. Owen then goes on to save the kid, denying him the chance to die with his eyebrows intact by wrestling with Death himself. Way to go, Owen.
* Cruelly twisted in the ''Series/LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnit'' episode "Sick", their RippedFromTheHeadlines take on the second round of child molestation allegations against Music/MichaelJackson. After the detectives begin investigating the Jacko-surrogate (who has bribed a family of a victim, a now-dangerously disturbed boy, to shut up), one of these comes forward saying she was also molested at a charity gathering. It turns out that first, [[spoiler:she was not molested but forced to say this by her grandmother/guardian so they could get a similar settlement so the girl could live.]] Second is even worse: [[spoiler:she doesn't have cancer; her grandmother is secretly ''poisoning her'' to profit off her ill state]]. What's really sad is that this is TruthInTelevision, and [[spoiler:known as Munchausen by Proxy -- making someone in one's care intentionally sick to garner respect, sympathy, and money; while this is intended as the grandmother's defense, she is told that no one will be "that stupid" as to believe it -- she's just greedy. Indeed, Novak decides to prosecute her for fraud for all the hundreds of thousands of dollars she's scammed off of people for the "sickness."]].
* A related story from ''Series/LawAndOrderCriminalIntent'', "Faith", has similar motivations: The Littlest Cancer Patient whose blogs, phone interviews and autobiography brought the nation to tears [[spoiler:turned out to be a complete hoax: her "guardian" wrote the book and blog herself, faked the phone calls, and even accepted donations of home medical equipment to stockpile for future sale on eBay. The truth only came out when a would-be benefactor insisted on meeting the girl in person]].
* The worst has to be from the original series ''Series/LawAndOrder'' episode "Smoke". In this case, the Littlest Cancer Patient is a peripheral character, as the story centers around his brother who was molested by a Michael Jackson expy and it was never reported because the parents had been paid off in exchange for their silence, which they agreed to because they desperately needed the money to treat their other son's illness. Then it's revealed that [[spoiler:it's even worse than it originally looked; [=McCoy=] notices the payment for the older boy's molestation was made ''before'' the act took place, meaning the parents didn't just agree to an arrangement after the fact in an attempt to salvage some good from the bad situation, which is what they had claimed to everyone including the victim (which was the reason he wouldn't cooperate with the cops), but rather had intentionally set their kid up to be molested to get the money to save his brother.]]
* ''Series/CSIMiami'': Horatio is forced to divulge the existence of his brother's illegitimate daughter (and her mother) to the widow when the daughter requires a bone marrow transplant and neither himself nor the mother is a match.
* ''Series/TheYoungRiders'' had a particularly heinous example of this in the otherwise decent episode "The Littlest Cowboy" (yes, that's the real title). To make it worse, the child actor used was ''extremely'' untalented.
* ''Series/TheCommish'' arranged for a young boy dying of cancer, who had wanted to be a police officer, to ride along in a squad car, and he even helps make an arrest (though we see the 'criminal' is actually a police officer in disguise).
* ''Series/{{Oz}}''. An unseen version of this trope serves to humanise lifer Rebadow, who tries raising money to first send his dying grandson to Disneyland, later to get him treatment. He finally gets the money by winning the lottery, only to have his partner (a prison guard) refuse to give Rebadow his half. The guard later feels guilty and changes his mind, but by then it's too late.

* ''Series/PowerRangersRPM'' has an entire ''orphanage'' full of them in Corinth, the Last City on Earth. One of the Rangers stole five million dollars worth of medical supplies to help them.

* ''Series/KnightRider'' pulls this with Becky, a child who even [[NotSoStoic KITT]] will surrender his dignity for, and who requires a bone marrow transplant. Of course, the only match is a street kid fighting a turf war on the other side of the country...
* A parody in the ''Series/ChappellesShow'' sketch "Make a Wish," where the little kid's dying wish is to meet Dave Chappelle, who arrives and proceeds to beat the pants off the kid at Street Hoops, all while enthusiastically taunting him?
-->'''Dave:''' Haha, GAME! In your face! In your FACE! Feel better.\\
'''Billy:''' ''[just before flatlining]'' ''Film/HalfBaked'' sucked anyway.
* Abused frequently on ''Series/GreysAnatomy'', especially since the addition of Arizona's pediatric surgeon character, most egregiously in the episode "Sweet Surrender": the little girl actually has Tay-Sachs and has made it to six years old (which is rare), and her desperate father spends most of the day running around searching for miracle cures in Mexico, which results in Bailey basically cuddling the girl all day. Finally, [[spoiler:she takes a turn for the worse and Bailey and Arizona gently tell the father to stop and just hold her as she dies, which he does, tearfully promising her that they'll go to Mexico soon and describing its beautiful beaches to her.]] Oh, and she has giant eyes and an adorable beanie.
* Averted on ''Series/BreakingBad''. While Walter Jr has cerebral palsy, it is not his defining characteristic or even mentioned very often. He is portrayed on occasion as bitter about having the condition and has not hesitated about giving out to Walt about his apparent self-pity. In a further, crueller subversion, Walt is subtly implied to be resentful of his son for forcing him into a job he hates.
* Averted on ''Series/TheInbetweeners'' as a student now popular for having beaten his illness is an erratic, violent attention-seeker who is hated by the protagonists.
* The Episode "Comeback" in ''Series/{{Glee}}'' has Will and Sue sing to an entire ward of these in order to give Sue a PetTheDog moment before going back to her usual {{Jerkass}} self.
* In the episode "Peter" from ''Series/{{Fringe}}'' we see Peter as one, made worse by the fact that he actually dies a quarter of the way through the episode and the rest showing how far one man would go to save him.
* ''Series/CriminalMinds'' uses one in "The Bittersweet Science", which kind of provides a continually running string of PetTheDog moments for the Unsub (intercut, of course, with him brutally killing people).
* ''Series/GarthMarenghisDarkplace'' regularly parodies this trope by having Dr. Rick Dagless pay a visit to "a very special friend of mine" mid-episode -- a sick child who exists solely [[CreatorsPet to tell Dagless how wonderful he is]] and provide a little angst. Particularly hilarious was the one that was addicted to smack.
* ''Series/MondayMornings'':
** In the pilot, there was this extremely cute boy with big brown eyes, who was a CheerfulChild and a future soccer star. He was brought to Chelsie General by his mum just as a precaution because he collapsed during a match. Unfortunately, he has a tumour in his brain. [[spoiler:He dies on Dr. Ty Wilson's table, and it is a major screw-up for him. It causes him a haunting HeroicBSOD experience.]]
** One thirteen-year-old girl is a talented pianist and determined not to get treatment because she wants to live her life to the fullest and not to deal with the pain of brain surgery and chemotherapy. Her parents want to do what she wishes, but the doctors disagree. [[spoiler:They are able to persuade her that she should not consider only mathematical statistics and chances of survival, but medical miracles as well. It's actually quite touching.]]
** {{Exaggerated}} with Chloe, who is a two-month-old baby and has a tumour growing in a vital part of her brain. She has seizures nearly constantly but her parents thought she was just an extremely happy baby. It didn't occur to them that constant laughter in a baby is not normal.

* Lampooned on ''Series/TheDrewCareyShow'': In an epic "fuck you" to the voters for the Emmys, who had never once nominated the show prior to that point, they devoted an entire episode to squeezing in ''every Emmy-bait trope they could fit'' into a single episode, including a Littlest Cancer Patient. Who wins the Emmy.
* In ''Series/{{Complications}}'', Dr. Ellison's daughter Becky was one of these. She didn't make it, and Dr. Ellison has not been taking it well.
* Emily from the ''Series/MidnightCaller'' episode "Do You Believe in Miracles?" After a statue of Baby Jesus at the nearby church starts crying, her father steals it in the hopes that it will heal her, inadvertently kicking off the episode's plot.

* The worst has to be from the original series ''Series/LawAndOrder'' episode "Smoke". In this case, the Littlest Cancer Patient is a peripheral character, as the story centers around his brother who was molested by a Michael Jackson expy and it was never reported because the parents had been paid off in exchange for their silence, which they agreed to because they desperately needed the money to treat their other son's illness. Then it's revealed that [[spoiler:it's even worse than it originally looked; [=McCoy=] notices the payment for the older boy's molestation was made ''before'' the act took place, meaning the parents didn't just agree to an arrangement after the fact in an attempt to salvage some good from the bad situation, which is what they had claimed to everyone including the victim (which was the reason he wouldn't cooperate with the cops), but rather had intentionally decided to in essence sacrifice him to save his brother.]]