Is there a more specific verb for "getting" cancer?

Question

Other than saying somebody "got" cancer, is there a more commonly accepted verb I can use? I thought of the verb contract, whose definition (according to a google search) is

catch or develop (a disease or infectious agent).

Though a separate google search for "Can somebody contract cancer" gives negative answers that go on to explain that cancer is not contagious. This was not news to me, but it does seem to indicate that contract is more commonly regarded as analogous to catch as in "She caught the flu", which I would never use to describe getting cancer.

My question is, is contract a commonly accepted verb for getting cancer, or is there a better one in common usage, other than get?

Answer 1

The word besides get that seems most common associated with cancer is develop.

Googling "develop(ed) cancer", we find

Most people who develop cancer have no family history of the disease,
Mutations build up over time, which is why people tend to develop cancer later in life,
They also couldn't tell me why I developed cancer in the first place,
The fact that your pet developed cancer is not unusual.

Let me note that "contract cancer" is not unusual, and doesn't mean that cancer is contagious. However, the word contract seems to be generally associated with a discussion of the cause of the cancer:

Van Halen believes he contracted cancer because of the metal guitar pick he would cradle in his mouth on stage.

A court has ruled that a woman who is terminally ill from an asbestos cancer contracted the disease from washing her husband's work overalls.