Japan’s 10-Year Cancer Survival Rate Rises to 59.4%

The National Cancer Center Japan has announced that the 10-year survival rate for patients diagnosed with cancer in 2008 was 59.4%. A study was conducted using the statistics of 237,800 cancer patients at 240 medical facilities providing specialized treatment of the disease. Cases of death other than cancer were not included in the calculation of survival rates. The figure is a 1.1 percentage point increase compared to the survival rate during the previous study, based on cancer patients diagnosed from 2004 to 2007.

Prostate cancer had the highest rate with 98.7% followed by breast cancer with 87.5% and uterine cancer with 83.0%. Pancreatic cancer had the lowest survival rate, with 6.5%.

Tempering the positive findings was a downward trend in the 5-year survival rate. The rate, based on a study of 826,000 patients diagnosed with cancer between 2012 and 2013 at 413 facilities nationwide, stood at 67.3%, a 1.3-point decline compared to the previous study based on diagnoses between 2010 and 2012.

The 10-year survival rates for each of the four stages of cancer, with stage 1 being the earliest, clearly show the importance of early detection and treatment. For stomach cancer, the 10-year survival rate at stage 4 is 6.9%, but rises to 90.9% if detected at stage 1.

(Translated from Japanese. Banner photo © Pixta.)