Their corporate handlers already tried to distance themselves from her when she tried to accuse Obama of being a secret Muslim. So in short, yeah, they need the attention.
Even if weight is not directly related to this specific cancer, considering how rare it is, I can see potentially numerous links to it and elements of Ford's lifestyle. For example, regular consumption of methyl based drugs while also maintaining a poor body weight and unhealthy lifestyle could be found to increase the chances of developing this kind of cancer. Of course, there are few enough 300lbs cokeheads out there to research said link.