"Die from cancer" vs. "die of cancer"

Is there a difference between those expressions: "Die from cancer" or "Die of cancer"? Are they both correct?

to die of some direct cause - cancer

to die from something indirect like drinking caustic soda or illness

You can also die by

Here is a good list

http://www.english-test.net/forum/ftopic7051.html

To die of Aids, of bird flu, of hunger, of overeating, of a heart attack, of cancer, of pneumonia, of childbirth, of stress, of a broken heart, of sorrow, of love, of curiosity (figurative language only, I hope)...

To die from car/road accidents, from desease, from illness, from stroke, from a wound, from smoking, from drinking, from sudden death, from a weapon, from injury, from war, from religion...

To die by (through the means of) the sword, by suicide, by overdose, by a bullet...

Die of is rather more frequent than die from in both the Corpus of Contemporary American English and the British National Corpus, and by a greater ratio in the latter. It would take a closer examination of the corpora to see if there was much difference in meaning between the two. My intuition is that there isn’t.