2023-06-13 16:36:42
When diagnosed with cancer for the first time, many people often ask themselves the first thing about their prognosis and whether their disease is easy to cure or not. Although the medical professional cannot predict the future, it is true that he can make use of the cancer survival rate in order to give you valuable information as a patient. Below we will offer you everything you need to know about this rate and what it means.
What is the cancer survival rate?
Survival rate or survival statistics indicate the percentage of people who survive a certain type of cancer during a specific period. Typically, cancer statistics use a five-year overall survival rate.
In general terms, these rates are expressed in percentages. For example, if you read that the overall five-year survival rate for bladder cancer is 77%, this means that of all people who have bladder cancer, 77 out of 100 live five years after diagnosis.
These rates are based on research done on information collected on hundreds or thousands of people with a specific type of cancer. An overall survival rate includes people of all ages and medical conditions who have been diagnosed with cancer, including those diagnosed very early and very late.
Types of fees
On the other hand, it should be made clear that overall survival rates do not specify whether cancer survivors continue to receive treatment at five years or are already healthy (achieved remission). For this, there are other types of cancer survival rates that provide more valuable information, such as the following:
- Progression-free survival rate: The number of people who have been treated for cancer and have no signs of recurrence or have a tumor that has remained stable and has not grown.
- Disease-free survival rate: The number of people who have no evidence of cancer after treatment.
Although, as we have already said, these rates usually use the five-year date, this does not mean that the disease can reappear many years later.
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