Headlines - Cancer Survival Rates

The cancer surveillance program involves the regular production of epidemiological indicators, including overall and relative patient survival. Overall 5-year or 10-year survival corresponds to the proportion of patients still alive 5 or 10 years after the date of diagnosis, regardless of the possible cause of death (cancer or other cause). Net survival is defined as the survival that would be observed if the only possible cause of death were the cancer under study. It is the only survival indicator suitable for comparative purposes. Thus, if one were to compare cancer-related mortality between young and older people, overall survival would differ significantly and would not allow for a valid comparison. In fact, older adults die from cancer but also from other age-related causes (cardiovascular diseases, etc.). Rather than relying on clinical follow-up of patients to estimate net survival—which yields unreliable results— the latest study by the French Network of Cancer Registries (Francim) estimated this indicator by calculating the difference between the mortality observed in the population of people with cancer from all causes of death combined, and the mortality due to causes other than cancer in this same population, assuming it to be equal to that of people with cancer.The study shows an increase in 5-year net survival between 1989 and 2004 for most cancers due to earlier diagnosis, early treatment, and therapeutic advances. This increase may also be explained by changes in definitions or registration criteria during the study period. During the 1989–2004 period, the increase in 5-year survival rose from 71% to 90% for prostate cancer and from 80% to 87% for breast cancer, which are the most common cancers.