Good news in the fight against cancer − survival rates in the United States are improving, according to a new report.
In the annual report from the American Cancer Society, out Jan. 13, findings showed seven in 10 people now survive five years or more after diagnosis. This 70% figure, up from only half in the mid-1970s, is based on diagnoses from 2015 to 2021.
The report added cancer mortality rates continued to decline through 2023, "averting 4.8 million deaths since 1991, largely because of smoking reductions, earlier detection and improved treatment."
“This stunning victory is largely the result of decades of cancer research that provided clinicians with the tools to treat the disease more effectively, turning many cancers from a death sentence into a chronic disease," lead author of the report Rebecca Siegel, senior scientific director of surveillance research at the American Cancer Society, said in a press release.
While the findings are positive overall, survival increases since the mid-1990s are especially notable for more fatal cancers. For example, survival rates for myeloma, a bone marrow cancer, jumped from 32% to 62%, liver cancer from 7% to 22% and lung cancer from 15% to 28%.
