A decade of progress: Trends in 5-year survival across 17 cancer types.

Abstract

e23262 Background: Advances in cancer detection and treatment have contributed to improvement in survival for many cancer types. Quantifying these improvements can help in assessing the progress made so far and inform the value of early cancer detection. We estimated increases in 5-year age-standardized relative survival rates for 17 different cancer types over 10 years. Methods: Using the National Cancer Institute’s Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) incidence registry database, which covers approximately 50% of the US population (SEER-22), we collected age-standardized relative survival probabilities by cancer type and stage for the population aged > 15 years. We determined differences in 5-year relative survival between patients diagnosed in 2004-2006 versus 2014-2016. Results: The 5-year relative survival for all cancer types combined increased from 64.7% in 2004–2006 to 67.0% in 2014–2016, representing an improvement of 2.3%. Among the 17 cancer types studied, 12 showed significant survival improvements across all stages. By stage, relative survival improved from 91.5% to 91.8% (localized, +0.3%), 59.6% to 63.9% (regional, +4.3%), and 10.9% to 15.1% (distant, +4.2%). The table shows increases in 5-year age-standardized relative survival for eight cancer types with the largest increases over all stages. The largest improvements in overall survival were noted for lung (+8.1%), gastric (+7.8%), and liver (+6.6%) cancer. The greatest relative survival increases for the localized, regional, and distant stages were attributed to pancreatic cancer (+18.6%), melanoma (+11.6%) and melanoma (+13.8%), respectively. Conclusions: Substantial progress has been made in 5-year relative survival rates for many cancer types. The observed gains underscore the importance of early detection and stage-specific treatment advances, particularly for hard-to-treat cancers like lung, pancreatic, and liver cancers. The 5-year age-standardized relative survival % for patients diagnosed in 2004-2006 → 2014-2016 (increase). Cancer Type All Stages Localized Regional Distant Lung 17.3→25.4 (+8.1) 55.0→65.1 (+10.1) 26.1→ 36.5 (+10.3) 4.0→8.2 (+4.2) Gastric 27.8→35.6 (+7.8) 64.3→74.8 (+10.5) 27.2→34.9 (+7.7) 3.9→6.5 (+2.5) Liver 13.6→20.1 (+6.6) 24.6→34.6 (+10.0) 8.7→12.0 (+3.3) 1.9→3.0 (+1.1) Pancreatic 7.5→13.7 (+6.2) 28.3→47.0 (+18.6) 10.1→16.7 (+6.5) 2.4→3.7 (+1.3) Kidney 68.9→74.5 (+5.6) 90.4→91.8 (+1.5) 63.7→71.2 (+7.4) 11.1→14.8 (+3.7) Head and Neck 63.9→69.2 (+5.3) 82.3→86.1 (+3.8) 57.4→67.2 (+9.8) 38.7→43.0 (+3.3) Ovarian 39.6→44.7 (+5.1) 89.3→89.3 (-0.1) 65.3→66.0 (+0.7) 25.3→30.2 (+4.9) Esophageal 16.8→21.3 (+4.5) 40.5→48.2 (+7.7) 18.4→27.4 (+9.0) 3.2→5.4 (+2.2) All 17 Cancers 64.7→67.0 (+2.3) 91.5→91.8 (+0.3) 59.6→63.9 (+4.3) 10.9→15.1 (+4.2) All increases were statistically significant except for those of localized and regional ovarian cancer.