Conditional relative survival in non-metastatic esophagogastric cancer between 2006 and 2020 in The Netherlands

Understanding conditional relative survival is useful for communicating prognosis to patients during follow-up as it provides an estimate of the life expectancy after having survived a certain time after treatment. A population-based study in The Netherlands estimated the conditional relative survival of patients with esophageal or gastric cancer. After having survived one, three, or five years, the three-year survival was 62%, 79%, and 87% among patients with esophageal cancer, and 69%, 84%, and 90% among patients with gastric cancer. The authors conclude that despite poor prognosis of patients with esophageal or gastric cancer, life expectancy increases substantially after patients have survived several years after treatment.