China's 5-year relative cancer survival rate rises to 43.7% in 2019-2021: report

BEIJING -- China's age-standardized 5-year relative survival rate for all cancers combined was 43.7 percent between 2019 and 2021, according to a report published in the Journal of the National Cancer Center.

The survival rate increased by approximately seven percentage points compared to the previous decade, said the report.

The study findings show that China has met the Healthy China Program (2019-2030) interim goal of improving cancer outcomes, which is to achieve a 5-year cancer survival rate of 43.3 percent for all cancers combined by 2022.

The research team collected data from over 6.41 million newly diagnosed cancer patients from 281 cancer registries across China from 2008 to 2019.

The researchers observed significant survival improvements for cancers of the lung, prostate, bone, uterus, breast, cervix, nasopharynx, larynx and bladder during the time between 2008 and 2019.

The improvement in cancer survival rates could be attributed to China's major healthcare reforms and technological advances which enabled earlier diagnosis, more effective treatment, and better cancer care management, said the report.

The study also found that eight types of cancer, including thyroid, breast, testis, bladder, prostate, kidney, uterus, and cervix had a 5-year survival rate of over 60 percent.

Pancreatic cancer had the lowest survival rate (8.5 percent), while thyroid cancer had the highest survival rate (92.9 percent) among all the cancer types, according to the report.