Table 4.

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.