Cancer survival statistics

In many cases cancer can be prevented, but this section is concerned with measuring the outcome, or survival rates, for those diagnosed with cancer.

The cancer survival statistics on these pages are designed for health professionals. If you are looking for information because you or someone you know has been affected by cancer, then the Cancer Help UK pages may be more useful and relevant. CancerHelp UK also includes a straightforward guide to understanding statistics.

Caution is recommended in interpreting the statistics on survival. They are not necessarily good indicators for a prognosis for individual cancer patients due to the large diversity of outcomes for patients in different circumstances, such as age of the patient and stage of the disease. Also the rates published are for the period 2000-2001 and so do not include recent advances in the treatment of any particular cancer. Survival data for patients diagnosed 2005-2009 is now available and we are working to update these pages and the survival pages within the specific types of cancer section.

Detailed survival rates, for England and Wales, for the commonly diagnosed cancers are available from the National Statistics (ONS) website. Survival rates for Scotland and Northern Ireland are also available on their websites.