Cancer survival rates in the U.S. are the highest they’ve been since the 1970s.
In 1970, only half of patients lived past five years. Now, at least 70 percent of U.S. cancer patients are surviving for at least five years following their diagnosis, according to new data collected by the American Cancer Society between 2015 and 2021.
The findings highlight the importance of progress made in related research over the past five decades, the society said.
“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,” Rebecca Siegel, the senior scientific director of surveillance research at the American Cancer Society, said in a statement.
However, despite the advancements made, researchers have issued warnings about the Trump administration’s decision to slash billions in funding at the National Institutes of Health — including for cancer research.
The administration has provided funding for AI-backed childhood cancer research, although data center particle pollution has also been linked to cancer.
“For decades, the federal government has been the largest funder of cancer research, which has translated to longer lives for people with even the most fatal cancers,” explained Shane Jacobson, the CEO of the American Cancer Society.
“But now, threats to cancer research funding and significant impact to access to health insurance could reverse this progress and stall future breakthroughs,” he said. “We can’t stop now. There is still much work to be done.”
The breakdown
The survival gains were especially notable for people diagnosed with more fatal cancers.
For people with myeloma, a blood cancer that affects more men than women, survival gains have risen from 32 percent in the mid-1990s to 62 percent. More than 12,000 Americans were expected to die from the disease in 2025.
In the same time frame, liver cancer survival rates jumped up from seven percent to 22 percent, and lung cancer survival rates rose from 15 percent to 28 percent. Over 30,000 people and more than 124,000 people were expected to die from liver and lung cancer last year, respectively.
And, for three in four people diagnosed with advanced stage lung cancer, five-year survival has increased to 37 percent — a jump of 20 percent — for people with cancer cells that spread solely from the tumor to nearby tissue and from two percent to 10 percent for people with cancer cells that had spread to more distant areas of the body.
Similar improvements were seen for people with cancer cells that had spread more widely as well as for people with rectal cancer and melanoma, a deadly form of skin cancer.
Cancer diagnoses are still rising
This year, the American Cancer Society projects 2,114,850 new cancer diagnoses and 626,140 cancer deaths.
While the death rate for cancer has dropped by more than a third since 1991, diagnosis rates are still increasing for breast, pancreas, uterine, mouth, liver, prostate, colorectal and skin cancer.
That’s especially true for younger adults, according to experts.
Why? Experts believe it’s a result of a confluence of factors, including expanded screening and better detection, environmental exposures to pollution, increased rates of obesity tied to ultraprocessed food consumption and women drinking more heavily.
However, more research needs to be done to examine the causes.
“With survival rates increasing, this leads us to cancer survivorship, which means addressing the physical, emotional and financial challenges these patients can face,” Dr. William Dahut, the chief scientific officer at the American Cancer Society, said.
“We are encouraged by the number of resources to assist the millions of survivors, along with the caregivers and clinicians, but more strategies will be necessary to ensure everyone has the support needed to have not only more days, but better days.”
