Population-level cure patterns for cancer patients in the United States

While life expectancy of cancer survivors has substantially improved over time in the United States, the extent to which cancer patients are cured is not known. A retrospective analysis of the SEER databases (1975-2018; 8,978,721 patients; 46 cancer sites; 125 site and stage combinations) found that in 2018, cure fractions ranged from 2.7% for distant liver cancer to 100.0% for localized/regional prostate cancer. Localized cancer had the highest cure fraction, followed by regional cancer and distant cancer. Except for localized breast cancer, older patients generally had lower cure fraction. There were 38 cancer site and stage combinations achieving 95% of cure within five years. A total of 117 cancer site and stage combinations had increased cure fractions over time. The authors presume that increases in cure fractions over time likely reflect advances in cancer treatment and early detection.