Health and Medicine
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The number of people who survive being diagnosed with cancer in the US has reached 70 percent for the first time, largely thanks to improvements in screening and treatment methods, as well as a massive reduction in tobacco smoking. Half a century ago, survival rates were just 49 percent, yet patients with advanced-stage cancers are now twice as likely to remain alive five years down the line.
The rest of this article is behind a paywall. Please sign in or subscribe to access the full content.These encouraging statistics were released earlier this month by the American Cancer Society, which published a study analyzing cancer-related deaths in the period between 2015 and 2021. Among the most striking findings were that five-year survival has now reached 98 percent for thyroid and prostate cancers, while the figure for testicular cancer and melanoma stands at 95 percent.
At the other end of the spectrum, just 13 percent of people diagnosed with pancreatic cancer during this period survived for half a decade.
According to the report, smoking prevalence across the US fell from 42 percent in 1964 to just 11 percent in 2023, resulting in a considerable drop-off in lung cancer deaths. Among men, the death rate for lung cancer has fallen by 62 percent from its peak in 1990, while the mortality rate for women has dropped by 38 percent since reaching an all-time high in 2002.
Despite this, tobacco smoke – including second-hand smoke – is predicted to cause 182,830 fatalities in 2026, making it the nation’s leading cause of preventable death. In fact, lung cancer is expected to kill more people this year than colorectal and pancreatic cancers – which are the second and third biggest killers - combined.
Overall, the study authors calculate that improvements in cancer mortality have prevented 4.8 million deaths since 1991. In that time, the proportion of people surviving metastatic cancer has doubled from 17 percent to 35 percent.
Encouragingly, the biggest gains have been seen in relation to high-mortality cancers, with survival rates for myeloma jumping from 32 to 62 percent in the past 35 years. Likewise, five-year survival for liver cancer has increased from 7 percent to 22 percent, and from 20 percent to 37 percent for regional lung cancer. The development of treatments such as immunotherapy is likely to have played a massive role in bringing about these improvements.
For women, breast cancer mortality has dropped by 44 percent since peaking in 1989, with around three-quarters of this progress attributed to improved treatment and earlier diagnosis through screening.
“Seven in 10 people now survive their cancer five years or more, up from only half in the mid-70s,” said study author Rebecca Siegel in a statement. “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.”
However, in their paper, the researchers warn that “continued progress is threatened by proposed federal cuts to cancer research and health insurance, which provides access to life-saving cancer treatment.”
In addition, the statistics lay bare the striking racial inequalities in cancer mortality in the US, with Native Americans roughly twice as likely to die from kidney, stomach, liver, and uterine cervix cancers than white people. Commenting on this finding, study author Dr Ahmedin Jemal explained, “Lack of access to high-quality cancer care and socioeconomics continues to play a significant role in persistent racial disparities.”
The study is published in the journal CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians.
