The Poynter Institute Menu Donate State Editions * California * Florida * Iowa * Michigan * New Hampshire * New York * North Carolina * Pennsylvania * Texas * West Virginia * Wisconsin Issues * All Issues * Online hoaxes * Coronavirus * Health Care * Immigration * Extremism * Taxes * Marijuana * Environment * Crime * Guns * Foreign Policy * LGBTQ+ People * Joe Biden * Kamala Harris * Donald Trump * Mitch McConnell * Hakeem Jeffries * Ron DeSantis Media * PunditFact * Tucker Carlson * Sean Hannity * Rachel Maddow * Bloggers * PolitiFact Videos Campaigns * 2024 Elections Truth-o-Meter * True * Mostly True * Half True * Mostly False * False * Pants on Fire Promises * Biden Promise Tracker * Trump-O-Meter * Obameter * Latest Promises About Us * Our Process * Our Staff * En Español * Who pays for PolitiFact? * Advertise with Us * Suggest a Fact-check * Corrections and Updates * Newsletters Donate #### Follow us The Facts Newsletter Sign up English Español ### Get PolitiFact in your inbox. * Weekly Email Newsletter * Daily Email Newsletter Your Email Address Sign Up ![](\\" ![](\\" Joe Biden stated on April 29, 2016 in a speech at the Vatican: \"In the United States alone we lose more than 3,000 people a day to cancer.\" ![\\"true\\"](\\" false/33efdb6633e5e2fdc2d4e2f63383a1e0.jpg.\\") ![\\"false\\"](\\" false.jpg\\") * National * Health Care * Public Health * Science * Joe Biden ![\\"Pope](\\" Pope Francis shakes hands with Vice President Joe Biden as he takes part in a congress on the progress of regenerative medicine and its cultural impact at the Vatican on April 29, 2016. (L’Osservatore Romano/Pool photo via AP) ![\\"Louis](\\" By Louis Jacobson May 9, 2016 # Joe Biden misstates daily deaths in United States from cancer Vice President Joe Biden, the Obama administration’s point person on advancing cancer research, traveled to the Vatican on April 29, 2016, to discuss technological progress in medicine. During that speech, Biden said, \"In the United States alone we lose more than 3,000 people a day to cancer.\" A few days later, Biden’s office posted the text of that speech on Medium. When we looked into this statistic, we found a discrepancy. In the American Cancer Society’s \"Cancer Facts & Figures 2016\" report, the group wrote that \"about 595,690 Americans are expected to die of cancer in 2016, which translates to about 1,630 people per day.\" That’s roughly half of what Biden said. When we contacted Biden’s office, spokeswoman Meghan Dubyak said the 3,000 figure refers to the daily number of cancer deaths in the Americas as a whole — not just in the United States — in 2012, the most recent year for which the World Health Organization has full data. We were able to verify that statistic here; officially, the number is 1.3 million annually, or just over 3,000 per day. Biden’s office has changed the text in the Medium article to \"more than 1,600\" during the course of our reporting. #### Featured Fact-check ![](\\" Instagram_logo_2016.svg/322c808c00e73c217d17772ddd5a0eb5.jpg\\") ![](\\" Instagram_logo_2016.svg/8b142c91ebe468a84a192e6df2b7b994.jpg\\") Instagram posts stated on August 25, 2024 in an Instagram post Video shows helicopter “dropping millions” of mosquitoes in Massachusetts towns hit by eastern equine encephalitis virus. ![\\"true\\"](\\" false/33efdb6633e5e2fdc2d4e2f63383a1e0.jpg.\\") ![\\"false\\"](\\" false.jpg\\") By Jeff Cercone • August 28, 2024 They also inserted the following correction: \"*The initial number provided for daily cancer deaths in the United States was 3,000 — which is roughly the number of daily cancer deaths across the broader Americas.\" Our ruling Biden said in his Vatican speech that \"in the United States alone we lose more than 3,000 people a day to cancer.\" Actually, that’s the number of deaths for the Americas as a whole, not for just the United States. After we contacted Biden’s office, they changed the number listed in the Medium article to the correct number, \"more than 1,600.\" While we laud speedy corrections, it is PolitiFact’s policy to rate statements on the Truth-O-Meter in their initial version, which, in this case, could not be corrected in its original setting, a high-profile international speech. So we rate the original statement False. #### Read About Our Process The Principles of the Truth-O-Meter ### Our Sources Joe Biden, \"What I Said at the Vatican About the World’s Efforts to Fight Cancer\" (post in Medium), May 2, 2016 American Cancer Society, \"Cancer Facts & Figures 2016,\" accessed May 6, 2016 Pan-American Health Organization, cancer webpage, accessed May 6, 2016 Email interview with Meghan Dubyak, spokesman for Joe Biden, May 4, 2016 ## Browse the Truth-O-Meter ### More by Louis Jacobson ![](\\" ![](\\" Jon Tester stated on September 8, 2024 in a Facebook ad: Tim Sheehy “would let politicians like him ban abortion, with no exceptions for rape or to save a woman’s life, and criminalize women.” ![\\"barely-true\\"](\\" th.jpg\\") ![\\"barely-true\\"](\\" barely-true.jpg\\") By Louis Jacobson • September 12, 2024 ![](\\" ![](\\" Donald Trump stated on September 7, 2024 in a rally in Mosinee, Wis.: Vice President Kamala Harris “cast the tiebreaking votes that caused the 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In the United States alone we lose more than 3000 people a day to cancer