Medical Edge Newspaper Column

Cancer Survival Improves

March 5, 2007
Readers:
A cancer diagnosis is frightening. But the number of cancer survivors continues to grow, thanks to new and improved treatments and earlier diagnosis. More than 10 million Americans with a history of cancer were alive in January 2002. One in every six people over age 65 has survived cancer.

It's encouraging to look at the progress:

• Overall: For cancers diagnosed from 1974 to 1976, the five-year survival rate was 50 percent. From 1995 to 2001, the latest figures available, 65 percent survived five years.
• Breast cancer: Between 1990 and 2004, breast cancer deaths declined 2.3 percent each year. In the 1950s, the five-year survival rate for cancer that hadn't spread was 80 percent. Now it's 98 percent.
• Prostate cancer: Five-year survival rates have improved in the last 20 years from 67 percent to 99 percent for all stages of prostate cancer combined.
• Colorectal cancer: Over the past 20 years, mortality rates have been declining an average of 1.8 percent a year. With early detection, 90 percent of patients survive five years. Unfortunately, only about one-third of colorectal cancers are diagnosed before the cancer has spread. Despite the proven benefits of screening after age 50, some people forgo screening.
• Lung cancer: This is the most common cancer-related cause of death in both men and women. Surgical and postoperative therapies have improved one-year survival rates from 37 percent in 1975 to 42 percent between 1999 and 2001. Lung cancer remains challenging to treat.