Cancer survival rates reach record high in the U.S.

A new report from the American Cancer Society (ACS) shows for the first time in the United States, the five-year relative survival rate for cancer reached 70% for people diagnosed between 2015 to 2021.

Survival gains since the mid-1990s are especially notable for people diagnosed with more fatal cancers, such as myeloma, liver cancer and lung cancer. Seven in 10 people now survive their cancer for five years or more, up from only half of people diagnosed with cancer in the mid-70s.

Dr. Brett Broussard, surgical oncologist for Banner MD Anderson Cancer Center, joined “Arizona Horizon” to discuss this report and what it means for cancer treatment going forward.

“This report goes back many, many years,” Dr. Broussard said. The annual report started in 1951. “There has a been significant improvement to changes and, I’d say, improvement in many therapies since that time period.”

Dr. Broussard also contributes the success to more research done since the mid-2010s and which has lead to better diagnoses. Cancer diagnoses do not end at the diagnosis of what kind of cancer a patient has but also what stage the cancer has developed at.

Dr. Broussard added, “If you don’t get staging on par, you don’t get the correct treatment. So it all fits together.”

Fatal cancers such as myeloma went from a 32% survival rate to a 62% because of these developments, according to the ACS. Other fatal cancers Liver cancer went up to 22% and lung cancer rose to 28% survival rate.

“I’m a thoracic surgeon by training and lung cancer is my specialty,” Dr. Broussard said. “Lung cancer still remains the deadliest of all cancers. Part of it is [because of] late detection. Signs and symptoms show up so late in the disease process that it delays diagnosis and disease is more prevalent at the time of diagnosis.”

Dr. Broussard suggests that procedures such as lung cancer screening plays a huge role in early detection that improves the chance of survival.