Cancer Survival Rate Reaches Historic 70% in ACS 2026 Report
The American Cancer Society's 2026 statistics show a historic 70% 5-year relative survival rate for all cancers, up from 49% in the mid-1970s. Progress is attributed to earlier detection, targeted therapies, and immunotherapies, though disparities persist for American Indian and Alaska Native populations.
According to the American Cancer Society (ACS) report, Cancer Statistics, 2026, the 5-year relative survival rate for all cancers combined has reached a historic 70%, up from 49% in the mid-1970s. The milestone is driven by a dual engine of progress: earlier detection through improved cancer screenings and a new generation of targeted therapies and immunotherapies that are both effective and manageable.
The report's lead author, a cancer epidemiologist and senior scientific director of surveillance research at the ACS, said that seeing a doubling in the survival rate for myeloma and an increase in survival, including a doubling of the rate for regional-stage lung cancer, indicates the improvements are real and are because of better treatments. The advent of targeted therapies with more favorable toxicity profiles has contributed to the improvement, with patients able to stay on treatment longer and thus live longer.
With about 20 million cancer survivors in the US, the context of survivorship has evolved from focusing solely on patients who are cured to include a population living long term with advanced disease. A breast medical oncologist and director of the Perlmutter Cancer Center Survivorship Program at NYU Langone Health emphasized the need to consider how to give the best quality of life, as most people are expected to survive.
Because most cancer survivors are older than 65 years, they face compounded challenges of cancer-related adverse effects and age-related comorbidities. Rising cancer rates in younger patients are also driving concerns about long-term adverse effects, such as infertility, with patients potentially living 20, 30, 40, or 50 years with these effects. Survivorship is also a psychological journey, as patients grapple with living with cancer while undergoing treatment and maintaining quality of life with metastatic disease.
The report also illuminated persistent disparities, especially for American Indian or Alaska Native (AIAN) individuals, who have the highest cancer mortality rates and the least favorable trends. Cigarette smoking contributes to an estimated 19% of new cancer cases, and tobacco use is notably higher in the AIAN population, as well as among individuals who identify as LGBTQ+, those with low socioeconomic status, and those reporting serious psychological distress. Although lung cancer incidence is declining for most demographic groups, rates remain stable for AIAN women, who have the highest smoking rate of any female group in the US, with tobacco companies aggressively targeting tribal reservations with advertising.