What’s It Like to Have Cancer for 20 Years?

Photo-Illustration: New York Magazine; Photos: Jon Gluck

Cancer stories, as we’ve long told them, tend to follow one of two arcs: diagnosis, then a brave fight against the disease resulting either in survival or death. But journalist Jonathan Gluck’s story has been different. When he was 38, with a wife and 7-month-old at home, Gluck learned he had multiple myeloma, a cancer of the plasma cells that causes damage to bones, kidneys, and the immune system. It’s an uncommon form of cancer...