The number of people still alive five years after a cancer diagnosis has increased from 2011 to 2020. The survival rate is now 66 percent. Ten years ago it was 58 percent. That appears from figures from the database of the Dutch Cancer Registry, the Integrated Cancer Center of the Netherlands (IKNL) reported on Monday. The 10-year survival rate, which was 43 percent at the turn of the century, has risen to 59 percent.
This is partly due to treatments. The number of diagnoses of cancers with a relatively favorable prognosis has also increased, contributing to the increase in the survival rate of all cancer patients together. The survival rate has increased by at least 10 percent in cancers of the prostate, kidney, thyroid, intestine, pharynx, liver and lung, especially for blood and lymph node cancers. In bladder and pancreatic cancer, among other things, the chance of survival remains very low.
The corona pandemic has had an effect on the chance of survival one year after diagnosis. Almost as many people died of cancer in 2020 as the year before. However, the chance of survival one year after diagnosis was lower. This is because population screenings were interrupted, people visited their GP less often, and fewer cancers with a high patient survival rate were diagnosed.