Key Highlights
- People who have received a cancer diagnosis are living longer than ever, according to a new report from the American Cancer Society (ACS).
- Decades of cancer research have led to more effective treatment of the disease, so that cancer is "becoming less of a death sentence and more of a treatable chronic disease," the 75th annual Cancer Statistics Report stated. The five-year cancer survival rate is now 70% in the U. S., compared to 50% in the mid-1970s.
- WHY ‘STARVING CANCER’ COULD BE KEY TO SLOWING DISEASE GROWTH, ACCORDING TO DOCTORS These improvements reflect advances in treatment and earlier diagnosis, said the researchers, who also recognized that screenings for breast cancer and prostate cancer have contributed to survival rates.
- "For example, survival has improved for some types of leukemia because of the development of tyrosine kinase inhibitors, which allow most patients to have a near-normal life expectancy," the researchers said in a press release.
- The five-year cancer survival rate has increased to 70% in the U. S., the American Cancer Society announced.
