tmorse6570 states that the risk of death by cancer is 1:20,000? Where does this number come from? Seems completely at odds with well-known statistics.

Actually, it's much much greater than that. Latest statistics I can find: ACS estimates 2002 deaths from cancer at @ 550,000.

http://www.cancer.org/

National Center for Health Statistics shows 2000 deaths in US at approximately 2.4 million.
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/deaths.htm

Therefore, it would appear that the risk of death by cancer (i.e., that your death will be caused by some form of cancer, not risk that a particular case of cancer will kill you) is approximately 1 in 5.

Djlawman