PARIS Taboos that forbid cancer sufferers from speaking of their illness and seeking treatment must be lifted to help fight a rising tide of the killer disease, experts told a global cancer summit in Paris on Sunday. "In some countries there is a conspiracy of silence about cancer that we must break, we will save lives if we can do that," said Frances Visco, chairman of the National Breast Cancer Coalition that helps sufferers in the United States. "Cancer is something that must be discussed, we must get it out in the open," she told reporters. Speaking at a one-day world summit, health workers said education was the key to wiping away the stigma of a disease that many sufferers in Europe and the United States were afraid to admit they had for fear of discrimination. The summit, held at the headquarters of the United Nations Education, Science and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in Paris, aims to encourage cooperation on cancer research and raise awareness of the disease around the world. Delegates hoped to encourage the implementation of a "charter of Paris against cancer" produced at an initial summit held in February last year, urging more research funding and better treatment for patients. The World Health Organization predicts that the number of new cancer cases reported each year will rise to 20 million by 2020 from nine million now, while the number of deaths will rise above 10 million from five million. Lung cancer is the most common and deadly cancer, causing 921,000 deaths every year. Experts said tougher laws to limit tobacco advertising and raise cigarette prices would save lives by discouraging the smoking that causes an estimated 30 percent of cancer deaths. (Reuter)