Incredible advances in cancer research: national survival rates reach 7 in 10

It is considered an important milestone in cancer research and treatment in the United States that 5-year survival rates, averaged across all cancers, have never been higher, with 7 in 10 cancer patients living more than 5 years after their diagnosis.

This average has been driven by significant increases in survival rates for leukemia (20%), non-Hodgkin lymphoma (18%), and ovarian cancer (9%) over the past 20 years.

Additionally, the five-year survival rate is 92% for breast cancer in women, 95% for skin melanoma, and 98% for prostate cancer.

These data have been compiled in the 75th annual Cancer Statistics report of the American Cancer Society (ACS). The report shows how 5-year survival rates have increased on average by 20% since 50 years ago.

The Cleveland Clinic states that most cancer recurrences occur within the first 5 years after diagnosis, so surviving this period is a strong indicator that the cancer is controlled and, although not “cured”, has a very low chance of coming back.

The 20% increase in patients reaching the 5-year milestone reflects advances in early diagnosis through routine screening procedures, and advances in treatments such as the introduction of immune checkpoint therapy, CAR T-cell therapy, and medications such as tyrosine kinase inhibitors that have significantly increased the survival rate of patients with leukemia.

Even pancreatic cancer, long considered almost a certain death sentence, has reached a double-digit survival rate (13%) for the first time in 20 years. Another serious category, liver cancer, has increased from a relative survival rate of 7% in the 1990s to 22% in 2023.

ALSO REVIEW: Rapid cancer breath test hailed as most significant step toward lifesaving breakthrough in 50 years

Survival rates for myeloma have doubled to 62%, and almost the same for lung cancer (from 15% to 28%).

Furthermore, diagnoses in more advanced stages are no longer as hopeless as they once were. According to the ACS, patients whose cancers had spread to “distant” organs had an average 5-year survival rate of 17% in the mid-1990s, but now average 35% in the 2020s.

CANCER SURVIVAL: New delivery system for chemotherapy treatment eliminates bladder cancer in 82% of patients

“The cancer mortality rate has decreased by 34% since its peak in 1991, preventing around 4.8 million cancer deaths through 2023,” the statistical report suggests.

Truly an eye-opening report.