Cancer Survival Rate

What is a cancer survival rate?

A cancer survival rate is an overview of people’s experience with cancer. It’s an estimate of the percentage of people with a specific cancer diagnosis who are alive after a certain time — usually one to five years — after they receive a diagnosis.

The key word here is “estimate.” People use cancer survival rates in different ways, like:

• Oncologists use cancer survival rates, among other information, to develop cancer treatment plans. They also use the information to set a prognosis, which is their estimate of the chance you’ll recover from cancer.
• Researchers study cancer statistics for trends in cancer survivorship. This information helps them to predict or estimate cancer survival rates, but they can’t use that data to say exactly what will happen to you or anyone else who has cancer.

Factors considered when estimating your prognosis

Your oncologist takes information about cancer survival rates into account when thinking about your prognosis. But they consider much more than data: They consider everything that they know about you, from the type of cancer that you have and the cancer stage to your age and overall health.

They also consider that they’re looking at dated information when they look at cancer survival rates. For example, the American Cancer Society publishes cancer statistics including survival rates. The most recent report includes information from cases diagnosed between 2013 and 2019 and followed through 2020. Since then, newly approved treatments and ways of finding cancer early may mean more people are living longer with cancer. And that may make a difference in cancer survival rate data.

What does the five-year survival rate mean?

In general, the five-year survival rate is the percentage of people who were alive five years after receiving a cancer diagnosis. That five-year span is important because research shows cancer that doesn’t come back (recur) within five years typically won’t come back. But a five-year survival rate doesn’t mean people are cured, or that cancer won’t come back years later.

When experts talk about survival rates, they may use the terms “overall survival,” “cancer-specific survival rate” or “relative survival.” These terms mean something different to healthcare providers and researchers but may be confusing to you. But remember that these are only estimates. The best thing you can do is talk to your oncologist, who can help you understand your prognosis.

Overall cancer survival rate

This is the percentage of people with a specific cancer who are alive five years after their diagnosis. This includes people with cancer that’s in remission, meaning they don’t have symptoms and tests don’t find signs of cancer. Your oncologist may use terms like “all-cause survival,” “observed survival” or “crude survival” to describe this survival rate.

Cancer-specific survival rate

This is the percentage of people who have a specific type and stage of cancer who are alive within a certain time after their diagnosis. This analysis doesn’t include people who died from other causes. For example, a person with lung cancer who had a fatal heart attack wouldn’t be included when researchers estimate cancer-specific survival rate. Your oncologist may call this “survival rate cause-specific survival,” “net cancer survival” or “cancer survival.”

Relative cancer survival rate

This rate compares the five-year survival rates in groups of people with specific types of cancer with people who don’t have cancer but who are the same age, sex and race. The relative survival rate shows whether a specific cancer shortens life.

Disease-free survival

Oncologists and researchers also track the percentage of people who don’t have signs of cancer during a certain period after completing treatment. Researchers doing clinical trials measure disease-free survival rates to see how well a treatment works. They may call this “recurrence-free” or progression-free survival.”

What cancers have the highest survival rates?

Survival rates vary depending on the specific cancer type and cancer stage. For example, localized cancers — ones that aren’t spreading — have higher survival rates than cancer that’s spreading to nearby more distant tissue and organs.

The American Cancer Society tracks survival rates for 22 types of cancer. The most recent reports show the five-year survival rate for 11 of those types of cancer ranges between 100% for prostate cancer to 90.9% for colon cancer. Here’s information on survival rates for other localized cancers:

• Thyroid cancer, 99.9%.
• Melanoma of skin, 99.6%.
• Breast cancer, 99.3%.
• Testicular cancer, 99.2%.
• Uterine cancer, 94.9%.
• Kidney cancer, 92.9%.
• Ovarian cancer, 92.4%.
• Hodgkin lymphoma, 92.2 %.
• Cervical cancer, 91.2%.

What cancers have the lowest survival rates?

The information below shows five-year relative survival rates for localized cancer including:

• Esophageal cancer, 48.8%.
• Pancreatic cancer, 44.3%.
• Liver cancer and intrahepatic bile cancer, 37.3%.
• Brain cancer, 36%.

Do you have to reach the five-year mark to be a cancer survivor?

According to the National Cancer Institute (NCI), cancer survivorship starts the day someone receives a cancer diagnosis. It continues during and after treatment and on through the end of life.

What’s the difference between mortality rate and cancer survival rate?

The mortality rate measures the number of cancer deaths within an entire group of people. This includes people who have cancer and those who don’t.

Do survival rates predict how long people can live?

No, they can’t predict how long you’ll live if you have cancer or your life expectancy. Most of the time, cancer survival rates reflect the percentage of people with cancer who are alive five years after diagnosis. However, a five-year survival rate doesn’t mean people are cured:

• Cancer survival data includes people with cancer in remission. While it’s true most cancer that comes back does so within two to three years, there are times when cancer in remission comes back years later.
• Sometimes, people develop a second cancer. This is a different cancer from the one they had before. Second cancers can develop years after people complete treatment.
• You may have or develop another serious illness that affects how long you’ll live.

Do people with cancer want to know about cancer survival rates?

There’s no one answer to that question. For example, researchers who asked people with cancer what they wanted to know about their condition reported that 87% wanted information like whether their condition was serious and their prognosis. But that’s not the case for everyone.

For some people, it’s more important to know if they’re likely to be alive within months or years so they can experience specific events like celebrating an anniversary, seeing someone graduate from high school or college or the birth of a grandchild.

For others, survival rate information may be something they want to know only if there’s a change in their situation like if they have cancer that’s spreading (metastasizing), or cancer treatment stops working and there aren’t new treatments to try. And some people may not want to know anything other than their cancer treatment. They may ask their oncologist to explain what they may expect without mentioning survival rates.

Your oncologist understands that everyone experiences cancer in different ways. They’ll want to know the best way to share information with you, like whether you want to know about and discuss survival rate information.