The term cancer climax is meant as, in the narrative, the building culmination of the illness to a narrative point at which either the ill or the illness finally succumbs; the cancer climax is not necessarily synonymous with the overall narrative climax or peak of the story. Creators might place it at a separate point in their works to impart a different value to the illness rather than the central conflict. Over the past forty years, the placement of this cancer climax has shifted, largely moving from the very end of the work to a place earlier in the narrative. As a result, more events following either a demise or a remission fill the stories, suggesting more to life after cancer.