In John Green’s The Fault in Our Stars, Hazel Grace Lancaster has thyroid cancer.
Hazel’s cancer has spread to her lungs by the beginning of the novel, requiring her to use an oxygen tank and portable breathing equipment. This medical detail shapes her daily life and helps explain her cautious relationship with illness, friendship, and romance.
A common mix-up is confusing Hazel’s diagnosis with Augustus Waters’s cancer. Augustus previously had osteosarcoma, a bone cancer, and lost part of one leg before the story begins. The two characters therefore have different diagnoses, although both are being treated at a cancer support group.
The novel was published in 2012 and became one of Green’s best-known works. Its title comes from a line in Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, adapted to suggest that people are not defined only by fate or misfortune.