Cancer Survival Rates Have Improved Dramatically in 50 Years—but Progress Remains Uneven
Advances in cancer treatment over the past half century have made many forms of cancer less deadly.
Credit: Doaa Albaz/Middle East Images/AFP/Getty
Cancer survival rates have risen substantially over the past 50 years, although progress remains uneven across cancer types. The biggest success stories include childhood leukemia and several blood cancers, while some difficult-to-treat malignancies continue to challenge researchers.
The analysis was highlighted in a report released last month by the American Association for Cancer Research.1 A study from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, found that 71% of people with cancer in the United States survive for at least five years after diagnosis, up from 49% in the late 1970s.
Lung cancer survival has more than doubled
Rebecca Siegel, a cancer epidemiologist at the American Cancer Society in Atlanta, Georgia, said the improvement in lung cancer survival is one of the most notable success stories. Lung cancer is one of the world’s leading causes of death, and only 13% of people diagnosed between 1975 and 1979 survived for another five years on average. For people diagnosed between 2016 and 2022, the five-year survival rate reached 29%.
“It’s still very low, but it’s a significant improvement,” Siegel said.
The rise in cancer survival rates has been driven by advances in surgical techniques and radiation therapy, along with new drugs that activate the immune system against tumours or target cancer cells with specific mutations. “It’s a very heartwarming story,” says Michelle Coleman, an epidemiologist at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Coleman says global statistics broadly show the same trend towards improved survival.
Childhood leukemia is one of cancer research’s biggest successes
Advances in the treatment of childhood leukemia are widely considered to be among the greatest achievements in cancer research. Among children and adolescents up to age 19, the five-year survival rate for lymphocytic leukemia increased from 57% to 90%.
Siegel says this progress did not result from the discovery of innovative treatments, but from careful, collaborative improvements to the dosing and timing of treatments that were already available.
Other cancer survival rates are also rising
Other notable improvements include liver cancer, for which the five-year survival rate has tripled to 22% since the mid-1990s.2 Survival rates for multiple myeloma, a type of blood cancer, have also increased significantly, helped by the development of drugs that harness the immune system.
There is room for improvement
Source: www.nature.com