![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/world-cancer-day-cancer-ribbon-colors-credit-Unsplash-1-1024x683.jpg\")
\u2013 credit Unsplash<\/p>\n \u2013 credit Unsplash<\/p>\n
In what is being called a major milestone in American cancer research and treatment, 5-year survival rates averaged across all cancers have never been higher, with 7-in-10 cancer patients living past 5 years post-diagnosis.<\/p>\n
This average was pumped up by large survival rate increases in leukemia (20%), non-Hodgkin lymphoma (18%), and ovarian cancer (9%) over the last 20 years.<\/p>\n
The 5-year survival average also stands at 92% for breast cancer in women, 95% for melanoma of the skin, and 98% for prostate cancer.<\/p>\n
These numbers were chronicled in the 75th annual Cancer Statistics report<\/a> by American Cancer Society (ACS). It shows how 5-year survival rates have increased on average 20% since 50 years ago.<\/p>\n The Cleveland Clinic states that most cancer recurrences happen within the first 5 years after diagnosis, so surviving this period is a strong indicator that the cancer is under control, and that while not \u201ccured,\u201d has a very low chance of coming back.<\/p>\n The 20% increase in patients living to the 5-year mark reflects advancements in early diagnosis through routine screening procedures, and advances in treatment like the introduction of immune checkpoint therapy, CAR T-cell therapy, and drugs like tyrosine kinase inhibitors which have greatly increased the survival rate of leukemia patients.<\/p>\n Even pancreatic cancer, long considered as sure as a court death sentence, has peaked over the last 20 years into a double-digit survival rate for the first time ever (13%). Another grim category, liver cancer, has risen from a 7% relative survival rate in the 1990s to 22% in 2023.<\/p>\n