Seven out of 10 Americans diagnosed with cancer now make it at least five years, a threshold experts say marks a turning point in the disease's grip on the country. The American Cancer Society's new annual report finds five-year survival has climbed from about 50% in the 1970s and 63% in the mid-1990s to 70% for patients diagnosed between 2015 and 2021. In most cases, the risk of cancer recurring falls dramatically after five years. The group estimates 4.8 million cancer deaths have been averted since 1991, largely because of better treatments, earlier detection, and fewer people smoking, reports NBC News. "Now we're seeing the fruits of those investments," said lead author Rebecca Siegel.
Two treatment shifts are leading the charge: immunotherapies, which train the immune system to identify and attack tumors, and drugs that target specific cancer-driving genes or proteins. Myeloma's five-year survival rate has nearly doubled since the mid-1990s, from 32% to 62%, Siegel said, calling immunotherapy "game changing" for that blood cancer. Targeted and immune-based drugs have also pushed five-year survival for regional lung cancer to 37%, up from 20% in the mid-1990s, per a release.
The outlook is far from uniformly bright. Though cancer mortality rates are falling, incidence rates for many common cancers, including breast cancer, are on the rise, per ABC News. The ACS projects more than 2.1 million new cancer cases and over 626,000 deaths in the US this year, with obesity perhaps playing a role. Siegel also warns that cuts to federal cancer research funding, widening racial disparities in cancer burden, the expiration of some Affordable Care Act subsidies, and pandemic-era interruptions in screening could slow or reverse gains. Democrats on the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee reported a 31% decrease in cancer research grant funding in the first three months of 2025, compared to January-March 2024.
,
uBlock 
,
and
Ghostery 
)
