People fear cancer more than any other disease, according to a new survey.

The poll of more than 2,000 adults found 35 per cent fear cancer while 25 per cent are most worried about developing Alzheimer’s disease.

Just three per cent are concerned about heart disease more than other illnesses, while five per cent are worried about stroke and seven per cent think motor neurone disease would be the worst type of disease to get.

Some two per cent of people surveyed for Cancer Research UK said they were worried about catching HIV.

Top of the list of cancers most feared is brain cancer (16 per cent), followed by bowel cancer (10 per cent).

People said they feared brain cancer because they thought it was the cancer they were most likely to die from (57 per cent), or which had the worst symptoms (47 per cent). Among men, bowel cancer is the second most concerning type (12 per cent), followed by lung (10 per cent) and prostate (10 per cent) cancer. For women, breast cancer (13 per cent) caused the most concern after brain cancer, followed by bowel (eight per cent) and lung ( seven per cent).

When asked about survival rates, 21 per cent of people surveyed thought breast cancer had the best survival rate while 12 per cent said testicular cancer.

Actual figures show testicular cancer has the best survival rate after five years of any cancer (97 per cent), followed by melanoma (87 per cent) and breast cancer (85 per cent).

Lesley Walker, director of cancer information at Cancer Research UK, said: “Cancer is a very emotive subject and it’s understandable why so many people fear it among other diseases. Yet people should be reassured that we are doing all we can to find new treatments for the disease.”