Cancer news usually arrives with a pit in your stomach. This week’s update from the American Cancer Society lands a little differently.
The ACS’s annual statistics report says the US has hit a new benchmark: 70 percent of people diagnosed with cancer now survive at least five years, based on diagnoses from 2015–2021. Here’s what that actually means, and what it doesn’t.
The 70% figure is real, and it’s a big deal
The American Cancer Society calls it the first time five-year relative survival for all cancers combined has reached 70 percent in the US. Relative survival compares people with cancer to similar people without cancer, which helps adjust for age and other factors.
The biggest gains show up in cancers that used to feel like a dead end
Since the mid-1990s, survival gains were especially large for cancers with historically rough outcomes. The report highlights myeloma rising from 32 percent to 62 percent, liver cancer from 7 percent to 22 percent, and lung cancer from 15 percent to 28 percent in five-year survival.
Metastatic survival improved, even if it’s still hard to hear the numbers
For distant-stage (metastatic) cancers, five-year survival for all cancers combined doubled since the mid-1990s, moving from 17 percent to 35 percent. The report also flags progress for distant-stage melanoma (16 percent to 35 percent) and rectal cancer (8 percent to 18 percent).
Lung cancer is still the top killer, by a lot
The ACS projects lung cancer will cause the most cancer deaths in 2026, outpacing colorectal and pancreatic cancers combined. That’s the sobering part of the same report that’s also celebrating survival gains.
Most lung cancers are still diagnosed late, but late-stage survival is climbing
The American Cancer Society notes that roughly three in four lung cancers are diagnosed at an advanced stage. Even so, five-year survival improved from 20 percent to 37 percent for regional-stage disease and from 2 percent to 10 percent for distant-stage disease since the mid-1990s.
Progress isn’t evenly distributed, and the report says that plainly
The ACS reports that Native American people have the highest cancer mortality overall, including death rates about twice those of White people for kidney, liver, stomach, and cervical cancers. The report points to access to high-quality care and socioeconomic conditions as drivers of these gaps.
One last reality check. ACS projects about 2,114,850 new cancer diagnoses and 626,140 deaths in 2026, even as the overall cancer death rate has dropped 34 percent since 1991, averting 4.8 million deaths. It’s genuine progress, but also a reminder that the work is nowhere close to done.
The post 6 Things to Know About the American Cancer Society’s 2026 Statistics Report appeared first on VICE.
