TOM'S TICKING TIME BOMB!

Cancer nightmare eats away at him

TERRIFIED Tom Cruise is trapped in a frightening cancer nightmare — and the aging action movie hero fears he may already be living on borrowed time, sources exclusively dished to The National ENQUIRER!

Tipsters claimed the tormented “Top Gun” flyboy, 59, is “haunted” by the 1984 death of his father, Thomas Mapother III, from “metastatic rectal carcinoma” at the youthful age of 49 — and is convinced he’ll one day suffer the same tragic end!

“Tom believes because of his genetic history he could one day face the same scourge that killed his dad,” spilled an insider. “He worries about the possibility, and that’s why he’s done everything in his power to make certain that doesn’t happen!”