An ecancermedicalscience online poll has highlighted the limited awareness of total deaths from cancer. Visitors to the website were asked whether world wide deaths from cancer exceeded those from malaria, TB and AIDS put together.

Although the majority of those polled gave the correct answer, 38% of those polled believed that cancer was less deadly than the other 3 diseases combined.

The reality is that cancer currently kills around 8 million people each year while malaria, TB and AIDS combined kill around 6 million, according to Professor Peter Boyle, director of the World Health Organisation’s International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC).

This reflects the publicity and large UN programmes surrounding malaria, TB and AIDS while cancer treatment is much lower priority.

70% of all cancer deaths are in less economically developed countries, where cancer treatment is the least comprehensive.


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