The number of people who died because of cancer in many countries is now being linked to an increase in the rate of unemployment during the global economic crisis, a new study says.

Researchers from King's College London (KCL), Imperial College London and Oxford University in the United Kingdom and the Harvard Chan School in the United States examined data on cancer-related death rates in high- and middle-income nations from 1990 to 2010.

They also compared the information with those of unemployment rates in these countries and their respective governments' spending on public health.

The researchers found that member countries of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) experienced more than 260,000 additional deaths related to cancer during the economic recession between 2008 and 2010.

Dr. Rifat Atun, an expert on global health systems from Harvard and one of the authors of the study, said their findings point to a correlation between unemployment and cancer-related deaths, wherein more people seem to die because of malignancies as unemployment rates increase.

However, Atun explained that these cancer deaths can be reduced significantly if governments would invest more on better public health systems.

The study showed that as unemployment rates increased by at least 1 percent, about 0.37 additional deaths were recorded for every 100,000 individuals.

This trend was not present in countries where a system for universal health care was implemented

Some of the cancer-related deaths Atun and his colleagues examined were related to lung cancer, colorectal cancer, breast cancer and prostate cancer.

Malignancies that showed survival rates of more than 50 percent within a five-year period were considered treatable by the researchers, while those that showed survival rates of only 10 percent and below were considered untreatable.

The researchers stressed that governments should ensure the best value for their investment by implementing health coverage that is both genuinely equitable and universal for all vulnerable populations.

While Atun and his team's work was not experimental and doesn't prove any cause and effect, it does indicate a causal link, as the changes in unemployment rates were then followed by changes in cancer-related deaths.

The findings of the international study are featured in the journal The Lancet.