People with schizophrenia are more likely to die prematurely than the general population from both suicide and physical ill health. Published studies examining the incidence of cancer in schizophrenia patients report increased, reduced or similar incidence compared with the general population. Older studies tended to report lower incidence rates which fuelled speculation as to the biological and other mechanisms for this protective effect. Furthermore, mortality rates in patients with schizophrenia appear higher than expected. We undertook a non-systematic review of published data to give an overview for these variable findings and illustrate methodological confounders by highlighting a systematic review of breast cancer studies.