At a Glance
- 70% of U.S. cancer patients now live at least five years after diagnosis
- Immunotherapy and targeted therapy drive the sharpest gains in blood and lung cancers
- Obesity-linked cancers in the young and research-funding cuts cloud future progress
- Why it matters: More Americans are living longer after a cancer diagnosis, but emerging risks and budget cuts could stall momentum
The United States has crossed a historic threshold in the fight against cancer: seven in ten people diagnosed with the disease now survive five years or longer, according to the American Cancer Society’s latest annual report released Tuesday in CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians.
Survival Rate Soars Since 1970s
The 70% five-year survival rate, based on diagnoses from 2015 to 2021, marks a dramatic jump from the 50% rate of the 1970s and the 63% recorded in the mid-1990s. Doctors rely on the five-year benchmark because the chance of recurrence drops sharply once that period passes without relapse.
Rebecca Siegel, the American Cancer Society’s senior scientific director of surveillance research and the report’s lead author, credited “decades of research” for the shift. “It takes decades for research to understand and develop these more effective treatments, and now we’re seeing the fruits of those investments,” she said.
The report estimates that better treatments, earlier detection, and falling smoking rates prevented 4.8 million cancer deaths between 1991 and 2023.
Immunotherapy and Targeted Therapy Lead Advances
Immunotherapy, which trains the immune system to spot and destroy cancer cells, has been “game changing,” Siegel noted. Myeloma, a blood cancer that strikes Black Americans at twice the rate of white Americans, saw five-year survival leap from 32% in the mid-1990s to 62% today.
Targeted therapies that attack specific cancer-driving genes or proteins have also reduced side effects by sparing healthy tissue. Dr. Christopher Flowers, head of cancer medicine at MD Anderson Cancer Center, said these gentler regimens let patients “stay on treatment longer” and move through multiple therapy sequences.
For regional lung cancer-tumors confined to the lung and nearby lymph nodes-five-year survival has climbed from 20% in the mid-1990s to 37%, reflecting gains from immunotherapy and targeted drugs.
Rising Risks in Younger Adults
Not all trends are positive. Dr. Clark Gamblin, a gastrointestinal surgeon at Huntsman Cancer Institute, warned that “an epidemic of obesity” is fueling cancers once rare in the young. Colorectal cancer incidence is rising among adults under 50, and overall female breast cancer rates are inching upward. Obesity is a known risk factor for both diseases.
The American Cancer Society projects more than 2.1 million new cancer cases and over 626,000 deaths in the U.S. this year.
Research Funding Falls Amid Health-Care Gaps
Siegel voiced concern over a 31% drop in federal cancer-research grants during the first three months of 2025 compared with the same period in 2024, based on an analysis by Democratic staff of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee.
She also highlighted widening racial disparities: Native American and Black communities carry a disproportionate cancer burden. Expiration of Affordable Care Act insurance subsidies could curb access to lifesaving drugs for these groups, while pandemic-driven screening disruptions may yet yield later-stage diagnoses.
“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.
Key Takeaways
- Five-year cancer survival has doubled since the 1970s, reaching an all-time high of 70%
- Immunotherapy and targeted treatments are transforming once-fatal diagnoses into manageable conditions
- Obesity-linked cancers in younger adults and federal research cuts pose fresh challenges to continued progress
