Americans living longer after cancer diagnosis - Harvard Gazette

"New findings on cancer survival rates offer hope for the more than 2 million Americans diagnosed each year. Seven out of 10 Americans diagnosed with cancer now survive five years or more, according to the American Cancer Society, a 7 percent increase since the mid-1990s, when the rate stood at 63 percent. The survival rate data - from patients diagnosed with cancer between 2015 and 2021 - showed, significantly, that those with high-mortality cancers and advanced diagnoses had the largest gains."

"If you look at the data, you'll see that there has been a steady decrease in the incidence of lung cancer. That's because Americans are smoking less, and so that's a social trend that has had huge payoffs in terms of reduced incidence of lung cancer. Another major trend is that the incidence of colorectal cancer has been steadily declining. That's because there was much more early detection of precancerous lesions, like colon polyps that are found on colonoscopy."

Seven out of 10 Americans diagnosed with cancer now survive five years or more, up from 63 percent in the mid-1990s. Data from patients diagnosed between 2015 and 2021 show the largest survival gains among high-mortality cancers and advanced-stage diagnoses, with myeloma rising from 32% to 62% and liver cancer from 7% to 22%. Improvements arise from medical advances, public health measures, and social changes: reduced smoking lowered lung cancer incidence, colonoscopy removed precancerous polyps reducing colorectal cancer, pap smears decreased cervical cancer, and mammography shifted breast cancers to earlier stages. Treatment improvements also contributed to gains.

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