A study conducted by the American Cancer Society has found that uninsured cancer patients are nearly twice as likely to die within five years as those with private coverage. The research was published in CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians, a cancer society publication.

"This report clearly suggests that insurance and cost-related barriers to care are critical to address if we want to ensure that all Americans are able to share in the progress we have achieved by having access to high-quality cancer prevention, early detection, and treatment services," said Dr Otis Brawley, chief medical officer of the American Cancer Society.

The study, led by Dr Elizabeth Ward, managing director, surveillance research at the ACS, has looked at some 600,000 cases in the National Cancer Data Base (NCDB). The NCDB tracks about 70 per cent of the cancer cases in the US.

"It's important to note that although variations in health insurance coverage likely contribute to racial and ethnic disparities in cancer outcomes, those disparities persist for several outcomes even when differences in insurance status are accounted for," Ward said.

Cancer causes about 13 percent of all human deaths. According to the American Cancer Society, 7.6 million people died from cancer in the world during 2007. In the United States, the leading killer in cancers is lung cancer in both men and women. The most common cancer is prostate cancer in men and breast cancer in women. Colorectal cancer comes in third in both categories.

The American Cancer Society (ACS) was founded in 1913 and operates about 3,400 local offices.