At a Glance
- Seven in 10 Americans now live five or more years after a cancer diagnosis.
- Mid-1990s survival was just 63%; early 1970s only half made the five-year mark.
- Immunotherapy and targeted drugs are turning multiple cancers into chronic conditions.
- Why it matters: Faster progress could stall as federal research funds drop and obesity-linked cancers rise.
The United States has crossed a historic milestone in the war on cancer: 70 percent of patients survive at least five years after diagnosis, according to the American Cancer Society’s annual report released Tuesday in its journal CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians.
That figure, drawn from 2015-2021 diagnoses, is a dramatic jump from the mid-1990s when the rate stood at 63 percent and from the early 1970s when only about half lived five years past diagnosis.
Survival Gains Driven by Science
Rebecca Siegel, the Society’s senior scientific director of surveillance research and the report’s lead author, credits decades of bench-to-bedside breakthroughs.
“It takes decades for research to understand and develop these more effective treatments, and now we’re seeing the fruits of those investments,” Siegel told News Of Losangeles.
From 1991 through 2023, an estimated 4.8 million cancer deaths were averted thanks to:
- Better treatments
- Earlier detection methods
- Steep reductions in smoking
Immunotherapy, which trains the immune system to spot and destroy malignant cells, tops the list of game changers.
For myeloma-twice as common among Black Americans as among white Americans-the five-year survival rate leapt from 32 percent in the mid-1990s to 62 percent today.
Targeted therapy, designed to attack cancer-driving genes or proteins while sparing healthy tissue, has also widened options.
“Staying on treatment longer allows patients to live longer, and these less toxic treatments allow more sequences of therapy,” explained Dr. Christopher Flowers, head of cancer medicine at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, who was not involved in the report.
Lung cancer, the nation’s deadliest malignancy, illustrates the shift. Regional disease five-year survival has climbed from 20 percent in the mid-1990s to 37 percent today.
Headwinds to Progress
Despite the upbeat numbers, several forces threaten continued gains.
Obesity is fueling rising incidence of colorectal cancer in adults under 50 and of breast cancer overall.
“Our country has an epidemic of obesity, and cancers follow that,” said Dr. Clark Gamblin, a gastrointestinal surgeon at Huntsman Cancer Institute and chief of surgical oncology at the University of Utah, who was not involved in the report. “So we’re not winning on every front.”
Equity gaps persist as well. Native American and Black populations continue to shoulder a disproportionate cancer burden, Siegel noted.
Funding cuts add another cloud. An analysis by Democratic staff on the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee found cancer research grant funding down 31 percent in the first three months of 2025 compared with the same period in 2024.
“Other threats to progress are the enormous gap that we see in the cancer burden in people of color, specifically Native American people and Black people,” Siegel said.
The looming expiration of Affordable Care Act insurance subsidies could curb access to costly cancer drugs, she added.
Lingering Effects of Covid Disruptions
Pandemic-era screening shutdowns may still be hiding advanced disease.
“The screening for [asymptomatic] cancer largely stopped during that time period, and I don’t know that we’ve seen the tail of that yet,” Gamblin said.
2025 Projections
The Society projects the U.S. will see:
- 2.1 million new cancer cases
- 626,000 cancer deaths
Five years remains the standard benchmark because recurrence risk drops sharply once cancers stay quiet that long.
Key Takeaways
- Science has converted many once-fatal cancers into manageable chronic conditions.
- Immunotherapy and targeted agents are leading the charge.
- Survival gains could slow without renewed research funding and broader access to care.
