Cancer Survival Rate Soars to 70%

   Cancer Survival Rate 

        Soars to 70%

M.A. Dworkin

     U.S.A. - According to a report released on January 13, 2026, by the American Cancer Society (ACS), the five-year relative survival rate for all cancers combined in the United States has reached 70% for the first time. The milestone signifies a major improvement in cancer outcomes, as the rate was roughly 50% in the mid-1970s.

     Seven in ten people diagnosed with cancer are now expected to live at least five years, a figure that has increased from 49% in the mid-1970s to 70% in the 2015-2021 period. 

     The rise in survival is attributed to advances in treatment (such as targeted therapies), earlier detection through screening, and reduced smoking rates. While survival has improved, the ACS report notes significant gains for previously hard-to-treat cancers, including a tripling of the 5-year survival rate for liver cancer (7% in the 1990s to 22% in 2023) and a rise in lung cancer survival from 15% to 28%. Cancer survival is highest for thyroid and prostate cancers (98% each) and melanoma (95%). 

     Decades of cancer research have provided health care professionals with the tools to treat cancer more effectively, so that cancer in general is becoming less of a death sentence and more of a treatable chronic disease.

     Despite these gains in survival, however, in 2026, there will be an estimated 2.1 million new cancer cases or about 5,800 diagnoses each day.

     While overall survival is up, the report also notes that cancer incidence is rising for some cancers, and lung cancer is still expected to cause most cancer deaths.

     For women, incidence is highest for breast cancer, which is diagnosed more than twice as often as second-ranking lung cancer. Incidence of liver cancer, melanoma, and cancer in the uterine corpus is also rising for women. 

     For men, the highest incidence is for prostate cancer, which is diagnosed twice as often as second-ranking lung cancer. And the incidence of prostate cancer continues to increase.

     Incidences of oral cavity cancer and pancreatic cancer are rising in both men and women.

     Cancer is still the most common cause of death for men in the U.S. ages 60 to 79 and women ages 40 to 79. For all ages combined, cancer is the second most common cause of death (after heart disease). 

     For 2026, it’s estimated that 626,140 people in the U.S. will die from cancer or about 1,720 deaths a day. Lung cancer will once again cause the most cancer deaths in 2026, more than second-ranking colorectal cancer and third-ranking pancreatic cancer combined.

     Racial disparities persist for both incidence rates and mortality due to long-standing inequalities in socioeconomic factors, including income, education, health literacy, and access to care. 

      The 70% figure is a 5-year relative survival rate, which means that on average, people have a 7 out of 10 chance of being alive 5 years after their diagnosis compared to people in the general population.