ACS Report: Five-Year Relative Survival Rates for All Cancers Up to 70 Percent in the U.S.

TUESDAY, Jan. 13, 2026 (HealthDay News) — Five-year relative survival rates for all cancers combined have increased to 70 percent for people diagnosed during 2015 to 2021 in the United States, according to the Cancer Statistics 2026 report, published online Jan. 13 in CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians.

Rebecca L. Siegel, M.P.H., from the American Cancer Society in Atlanta, and colleagues estimated the number of new cancer cases and deaths in the United States and reported outcomes using data from central cancer registries and the National Center for Health Statistics.

The researchers found that approximately 2,114,850 new cancer cases and 626,140 cancer deaths are projected to occur in the United States in 2026. Through 2023, the cancer mortality rate continued to decline, averting 4.8 million deaths since 1991, mainly due to reductions in smoking, earlier detection, and improved treatment. These interventions also resulted in increasing five-year relative survival, which reached 70, 69, and 35 percent for diagnoses during 2015 to 2021 overall, for regional-stage disease, and for distant-stage (metastatic) disease, respectively, increasing from 63, 54, and 17 percent, respectively, in the mid-1990s. The largest gains were seen for people with high-mortality cancer and advanced diagnoses, including myeloma, liver cancer, metastatic melanoma, metastatic rectal cancer, regional lung cancer, and metastatic lung cancer.

“Oncology treatment goes far beyond the medical care used to manage or attempt to cure the disease,” William Dahut, M.D., chief scientific officer at the American Cancer Society, said in a statement. “With survival rates increasing, this leads us to cancer survivorship, which means addressing the physical, emotional, and financial challenges these patients can face.”

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