From the BBC article, Cancer: Number One Killer listed there, "Cancer currently kills 135,000 people a year" (in an article from 2000). And from Cancer now No. 1 killer illness in United States, "In 2002, the most recent year for which information is available, 476,009 Americans under 85 died of cancer". Since cancer rates and medical interventions vary widely, these two numbers are not enough to give a good estimate about worldwide deaths.