Positive news about cancer can be hard to come by. Recent studies suggest that cancer rates are rising among young people and that many ubiquitous aspects of modern life—from microplastics to air pollution—may increase the risk of developing cancer. But the American Cancer Society’s latest report on U.S. cancer statistics delivers a healthy dose of optimism.
The findings, published Tuesday, show for the first time that 70% of all cancer patients survived at least five years after being diagnosed between 2015 and 2021. That’s a major improvement since the mid-1970s, when the five-year survival rate was just 49%, according to the report.
“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,” lead author Rebecca Siegel, ACS senior scientific director of cancer surveillance research, said in a press release.
Even the deadliest cancers are more survivable
Siegel and her colleagues compiled the most recent population-based data from cancer registries and the National Center for Health Statistics to assess trends in cancer incidence and outcomes. Five years is a common benchmark for measuring cancer survival because cancers that don’t recur within five years rarely return, according to Cleveland Clinic.
Their analysis revealed that survival gains since the mid-1990s have been especially significant for patients diagnosed with more fatal cancers, including myeloma (from 32% to 62%), liver cancer (7% to 22%), and lung cancer (15% to 28%).
Five-year survival has also improved dramatically for patients diagnosed with advanced cancers, doubling from 17% to 35% for all cancers combined. For the three in four people diagnosed with lung cancer at an advanced stage, five-year survival has increased from 20% to 37% among locally advanced cancer patients and from 2% to 10% among metastatic cancer patients.
In all, the report’s authors estimate more effective treatments, improvements in early detection, and a reduction in smoking prevented 4.8 million cancer-related deaths between 1991 and 2023.
Still, marginalized groups continue to face an elevated risk of cancer compared to the general population. The report found that Native American people have the highest risk of cancer mortality, including death rates double those of white people for kidney, liver, stomach, and uterine cervix cancers.
“Lack of access to high-quality cancer care and socioeconomics continues to play a significant role in persistent racial disparities,” senior author Ahmedin Jemal, ACS senior vice president of cancer surveillance, prevention, and health services research, said in the release. “Efforts need to be focused on these areas so successful targeted cancer control interventions can be more broadly and equitably applied to all populations.”
Rising diagnoses and threats to progress
Okay, now for the bad news. Despite marked improvements in survival rates, cancer remains the second-leading cause of death in the U.S. The report’s authors estimate that more than 2 million new cancer diagnoses will occur in 2026, and more than 600,000 will die from the disease.
In fact, the report finds that the incidence of many common cancers is on the rise, including breast, prostate, oral, pancreas, and endometrial cancers. Among women, incidence of liver cancer and melanoma is also increasing. At the same time, the Trump administration threatens to undo U.S. progress in reducing cancer deaths by implementing sweeping funding and staff cuts across multiple research institutions.
“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,” Shane Jacobson, CEO of ACS and its Cancer Action Network, said in the release.
“But now, threats to cancer research funding and significant impact to access to health insurance could reverse this progress and stall future breakthroughs,” he added. “We can’t stop now. There is still much work to be done.”
The big takeaway from this report is that investment in cancer research saves lives. The survival gains Americans have seen over the past five decades would not have been possible without the development of new treatments, early detection methods, and extensive investigation into the causes of cancer. Whether the U.S. continues to bend the cancer mortality curve will now depend on whether policymakers choose to sustain—or undermine—those investments.
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