Background: The relative distribution of cancer research output across disease sites is not well described. Here we evaluate whether the volume of published research and clinical trials is proportional to mortality by cancer site. We also explore whether research output is proportional to research funding by cancer site. Methods: Statistics from the American and Canadian Cancer Societies were used to identify the top ten causes of cancer death in 2013. The OVID MEDLINE database identified all journal articles and clinical trials published in 2013 by US/Canadian authors for these cancer sites. Total research funding in Canada by cancer site was obtained from the 2011 report by Canadian Cancer Research Alliance. Descriptive statistics and Pearson correlation coefficient (r) were used to describe the relationship between research output (volume of publications and clinical trials), cancer mortality, and research funding. Results: We identified 19,361 publications and 2,661 clinical trials. The proportion of publications and clinical trials were substantially lower than the proportion of deaths for lung (41% deaths, 15% publications, 16% clinical trials), colorectal (14%, 7%, 6%), pancreas (10%, 7%, 5%), and gastroesophageal (7%, 5%, 3%) cancers. Conversely, research output was substantially greater than the proportional death for breast cancer (10% deaths, 29% publications, 30% clinical trials) and prostate cancer (8%, 15%, 17%). There was substantial variation in total research investment across cancer sites that was not due to differences in relative mortality. Total investment in 2013 in Canada per cancer death was $599 for bladder cancer, $1039 for lung cancer, $2197 for colorectal cancer, $9212 for prostate cancer, and $14,329 for breast cancer. There was stronger correlation between research output and funding (all publications r = 0.8942 p < 0.001; clinical trials r = 0.9258, p < 0.001), than there was between research output and cancer mortality (r = 0.3625, p = 0.3033 and r = 0.3395, p = 0.3372). Conclusions: Research output is not well correlated to cancer mortality but is correlated to relative level of research funding.