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January 13, 2026<\/p>\n
2 min read<\/p>\n
Add Us On Google<\/span>Add SciAm<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n 70 Percent of Cancer Patients Now Survive at Least Five Years, Study Finds<\/p>\n Cancer survival rates climbed significantly in recent decades. But federal funding cuts could threaten that progress, physicians warn<\/p>\n By Jackie Flynn Mogensen edited by Tanya Lewis<\/span><\/p>\n A CT scan showing cancerous tumors (right) and a clean scan after treatment (left). Survival rates across cancer types have increased in recent decades.<\/p>\n SAUL LOEB\/AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n On Tuesday the American Cancer Society (ACS) released its annual report on cancer statistics in the U.S., and it offered a rare bit of good news: the proportion of people who were alive at least five years after a cancer diagnosis hit a record high.<\/p>\n The report found that, among all cancer patients diagnosed between 2015 and 2021 in the U.S., the survival rate at the five-year mark relative to those who didn\u2019t have cancer was 70 percent. This is the highest rate ever recorded by ACS. The researchers attributed the gains to better detection and treatment, as well as cutbacks in smoking.<\/p>\n \u201cSeven in 10 people now survive their cancer five years or more, up from only half in the mid-70s,\u201d said Rebecca Siegel, ACS\u2019s senior scientific director for surveillance research, in a statement. \u201cThis stunning victory is largely the result of decades of cancer research that provided clinicians with the tools to treat the disease more effectively, turning many cancers from a death sentence into a chronic disease.\u201d<\/p>\n If you’re enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.<\/p>\n Some of the most fatal cancers saw the greatest improvement in survival. The five-year relative survival rate for myeloma (a type of cancer that affects bone marrow), for instance, nearly doubled between the 1990s and now, jumping from 32 to 62 percent, while liver cancer survival more than tripled from 7 to 22 percent.<\/p>\n In part, that\u2019s because of greater understanding of the cancer genome and the development of targeted therapies against cancer mutations, added William Dahut, ACS\u2019s chief scientific officer, on a press call with reporters on Monday, ahead of the report\u2019s release. \u201cPeople are living with metastatic cancer for years and years now,\u201d he said. \u201cThis has really been driven by research.\u201d<\/p>\n But the full picture isn\u2019t entirely rosy. The report projects that, in 2026, more than two million people in the U.S. will be diagnosed with new cancer cases, and more than 625,000 people will die of their disease. Lung cancer is expected to cause the most deaths\u2014more than twice as many as any other cancer, the report\u2019s authors write. (That\u2019s particularly tragic because, as Scientific American has reported, many of those who are most at risk of lung cancer never get screened.)<\/p>\n Cuts to federal funding for cancer-related research threaten the country\u2019s progress, the authors warn. In just the first three months of 2025, a Senate minority report estimated, National Cancer Institute grant funding was down 31 percent from the previous year.<\/p>\n \u201cAlthough decades of scientific investment have translated into longer lives for most people diagnosed with cancer,\u201d the authors of the new ACS report concluded, \u201cpending federal cuts to health insurance and cancer research will inevitably reduce access to life‐saving drugs and halt progress at a time when incidence is rising for many common cancers.\u201d<\/p>\n If you enjoyed this article, I\u2019d like to ask for your support. Scientific American<\/span> has served as an advocate for science and industry for 180 years, and right now may be the most critical moment in that two-century history.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve been a Scientific American<\/span> subscriber since I was 12 years old, and it helped shape the way I look at the world. SciAm <\/span>always educates and delights me, and inspires a sense of awe for our vast, beautiful universe. I hope it does that for you, too.<\/p>\n If you subscribe to Scientific American<\/span>, you help ensure that our coverage is centered on meaningful research and discovery; that we have the resources to report on the decisions that threaten labs across the U.S.; and that we support both budding and working scientists at a time when the value of science itself too often goes unrecognized.<\/p>\n In return, you get essential news, captivating podcasts, brilliant infographics, can’t-miss newsletters, must-watch videos, challenging games, and the science world’s best writing and reporting. You can even gift someone a subscription.<\/p>\n There has never been a more important time for us to stand up and show why science matters. I hope you\u2019ll support us in that mission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" January 13, 2026 2 min read Add Us On GoogleAdd SciAm 70 Percent of Cancer Patients Now Survive at Least Five Years, Study Finds Cancer survival rates climbed significantly in recent decades. But federal funding cuts could threaten that progress, physicians warn By Jackie Flynn Mogensen edited by Tanya Lewis A CT scan showing cancerous<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":41504,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[58],"tags":[654,189,1476,2977,188,2640,637],"class_list":{"0":"post-41503","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-science","8":"tag-cancer","9":"tag-finds","10":"tag-patients","11":"tag-percent","12":"tag-study","13":"tag-survive","14":"tag-years"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41503","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=41503"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41503\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/41504"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=41503"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=41503"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=41503"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}On supporting science journalism<\/h2>\n
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