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Posted on 01/19/2026 7:50:12 PM PST by SeekAndFind
For the first time, most people diagnosed with cancer are expected to live at least five years beyond their diagnosis—a dramatic improvement from previous decades.
The improvements detailed in the organization’s Cancer Statistics 2026 report, recently published in CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians, highlight significant progress in cancer survival rates in the United States.
“Seven in 10 people now survive their cancer five years or more, up from only half in the mid-70s,” Rebecca Siegel, senior scientific director at the American Cancer Society (ACS), said in a press statement. She credited decades of cancer research that have provided doctors with better tools to treat the disease.
The milestone applies to cancers diagnosed between 2015 and 2021, with 70 percent of cases diagnosed during this period predicted to survive at least five years.
However, cancer incidence has also modestly increased, the ACS noted. The organization projects 2.1 million new cancer cases in 2026, an increase from 2,042,000 new cases in 2025. In 2026, the ACS also projects more than 626,000 cancer deaths, up from a projected 618,000 deaths in 2025.
Experts warn that ongoing challenges—including rising cancer cases and disparities among different populations—mean there’s still much work to be done.
For late-stage cancers overall, five-year survival has doubled from 17 percent to 35 percent since the mid-1990s. The ACS particularly highlighted survival gains in melanoma, rectal, and lung cancers. Melanoma and rectal cancer survival rates more than doubled, while survival for lung cancer diagnosed at an advanced stage rose from 20 percent to 37 percent for regional disease and from 2 percent to 10 percent for distant disease.
Five-year survival rates for bladder and uterine cancers, however, have declined slightly over the past decade. Rising Cancer Cases Spark Concern Despite the progress, new cancer cases are rising for several common cancers, including breast, prostate, liver, melanoma, oral cavity, pancreas, and uterine cancers. The increase from 2.04 million projected cases in 2025 to 2.1 million in 2026 reflects both demographic shifts and troubling trends. “As cancer is more common in older individuals, our aging population is, in part, driving the rising cancer incidence we are seeing. We are also noting a disturbing rise in incidence of certain cancers in a younger patient population,” Dr. Richard Carvajal, deputy physician-in-chief and director of medical oncology at Northwell Health Cancer Institute, told The Epoch Times.
Cancers rising among young people include breast cancer, prostate cancer, colorectal cancer, and endometrial cancer, among others.
“The reasons for this increase [in cancer in younger patients] remain unclear,” Carvajal said.
More funding is needed to identify the factors causing cancers to develop at younger ages, said Susan L. Neuhausen, director of the Division of Biomarkers of Early Detection and Prevention at City of Hope.
“There are many hypotheses of why, including microplastics and forever chemicals, but it is difficult to discern environmental or lifestyle factors that are driving this increase,” she told The Epoch Times. “Already, the age for colorectal screening has been reduced, which should then find cancers at an earlier stage, but it doesn’t address why people are being diagnosed with cancer at younger ages.”
Large studies, Neuhausen added, such as the National Institutes of Health (NIH) All of Us research program, may provide needed clues to address the rise in younger-onset cancers and persistent disparities.
Tests can now determine how likely someone is to develop cancer, how aggressive a cancer is, and what drives it to grow —allowing treatments tailored to a person’s cancer.
Another factor increasing survival, particularly for advanced cancers, is the availability of better treatments and treatments targeted to the specific defects causing the cancer, Neuhausen added. In recent decades, immunotherapies, which enhance the body’s immune defense against cancers, have led to notable survival gains.
“The efficacy of new treatments is unparalleled,” she said. “These advances have been possible because the NIH and [National Cancer Institute] NCI fund basic and translational research that leads to these discoveries and their implementation to improve survival.”
“So even though there is an increase in incidence rates, if we detect early cancer at [an] early stage, and if we have a very effective treatment, mortality will decline,” Jemal said.
Approximately 40 percent of cancer cases in the United States can be attributed to modifiable risk factors, including cigarette smoking, excess body weight, and alcohol consumption, the report noted.
Geography is also a strong predictor of cancer risk and can reflect differences in lifestyle choices and access to health care.
“For example, male lung cancer incidences vary threefold to fourfold across states,” Dr. Rebecca Miksad, chief medical officer at Color Health, told The Epoch Times.
Early detection through screening is also important for prevention and treatment, as early-stage cancers can often be cured. Screening methods include mammography for breast cancer, colonoscopy for colorectal cancer, low-dose CT scans for lung cancer, and Pap smears for cervical cancer.
“A newer method of early detection that is noninvasive is ‘liquid biopsies,’ which are blood tests to detect signs of cancer,” Miksad said. “They are already being used to detect early recurrence after cancer so that treatment can be restarted earlier, before the cancer can spread further.”
Jemal emphasized that lack of access to high-quality cancer care and socioeconomic factors continue to play a significant role in racial disparities.
“We have to celebrate the success,” Jemal said. “It’s the first time that seven out of 10 people diagnosed with cancer survive five years.” However, he stressed that much more progress is still needed, with more than 2.1 million people diagnosed with cancer and well over half a million dying from the disease each year.
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But modern medicine and Big Pharma are the ‘devil incarnate’, according to many here.
Good news but a long ways to go.
Better cures or just earlier detection? If you detect a tumor when it is pinhead sized rather than marble sized, I would expect longer survival even without treatment.
If Big Pharma demonizes an off-label widely prescribed drug ( ivermectin) the way they did during COVID, then, yeah, I’ll label them that way.
So, I guess you don’t use doctors or take any drugs they prescribe.
12 years for me.
Or is that dog years? If that were the case I died three years back, but being still here it works out even.
I better get that dollar-a-day life insurance while I still can. Maybe they can bill me for it after I'm gone!
I didn’t say that. I merely pointed out why some of us feel the way we do. No exclusion of “approved” medications is stated or implied.
Six years here, but it’s coming back and I don’t feel like fighting it anymore. The world isn’t worth living in.
Interesting
Our Upholstered Sewer is ,in Fact,
Losing it’s luster.
“The world isn’t worth living in.”
I can’t say I disagree with you.
How-EV-er, I hope that things will turn around for you and you’ll be at 100% again.
I wish you all the best.
My wife lived 6 years after diagnosis of stage-4 cancer in lungs, ribs and brain. She was very brave to tolerate awful side effects of radiation and chemo. I could never tolerate those side effects. There is no cure for cancer. Only remission is possible.
My tumor was big marble sized. That was 12 years ago. Hardly a park walk but the treatment was effective.
Hello fellowFreeepers!!
I was diagnosed with colorectal cancer.
I had pre-surgery chemo and radiation treatment.
I had the surgery in 2000, then post surgery chemo.
They removed that famous ‘S’ bend used in medication advertisements, and, the lymph nodes associated. Once removed,, they tested that to “see if they got it all”. They did, and I am living with a colostomy stoma every since.
9 years now- even had 2 types of cancer- last one was 5 years ago, several tumors.
I had 5 marble sized tumors on my arm. They got em all hopefully. They were very aggressive- cropped up in just a few days each time.
The first surgury took out 2, andmthey did an arm numb for the surgury instead of general. For 3 dzys i couldnt feel the arm at all or use it. Weird weird feeling. Next time ima get general lol.
The world only seems that way in the news. There's still goodness in the world, though it's hard to find sometimes. I'm a two-time survivor. The fight is worth it, if only to find out what happens next here on Earth.
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