Example and frequency of comment themes (n=167)*†
| Theme description | Example | % |
| Overall supporting renaming proposal | 22.1 | |
| Unnecessary anxiety/overtreatment | ‘I must say I agree with the re-labelling. I've personally seen a lot of damage and stress done to patients when they feel the need to act aggressively on neoplasia that is best left alone.’ | 13.2 |
| Cancer is a spectrum | ‘Some cancers are very slow growing and are less likely to kill you than say, a heart attack… I welcome the approach taken in the article.’ | 9.6 |
| Overall opposing renaming proposal | 49.7 | |
| Cancer is cancer | ‘If it's cancer, it's cancer. Changing the word does not change the thing.’ | 19.2 |
| Need for better education/communication | ‘Surely rather than stop using the word cancer for cancer, we should instead educate the population that cancer doesn't=instant death.’ | 18.6 |
| Can lead to negative implications | ‘Under a microscope the cells have appearances of cancer. To pretend otherwise is to put at risk patients who will not understand this and avoid follow-up.’ | 9.0 |
| Watchful waiting may cause anxiety | ‘The intense anxiety of watchful waiting is stressful… Of course, treatment of the anxiety would also be desirable to avoid surgery, but I think we underestimate the harm of years/decades of anxiety about cancer progressing.’ | 2.4 |
| Overall neither supporting nor opposing | 26.4 | |
| Other comments/cannot be coded | ‘The real reason? Your nanny state does not want to pay.’ | 39.5 |
*Comments could have more than one theme applied.
†Not all media sources had public comments available, replies to original comments were excluded.