Survival
Survival depends on many factors. No one can tell you exactly how long you will live.
Below are general statistics based on large groups of people. Remember, they can’t tell you what will happen in your individual case.
Survival by stage
There are no UK-wide statistics available for cervical cancer survival by stage.
Survival statistics are available for each stage of cervical cancer in England. These figures are for people diagnosed between 2013 and 2017. These statistics are non-age-standardised which means they don't take into account the age of the people with cervical cancer.
Stage 1
Around 95 out of 100 people (around 95%) will survive their cancer for 5 years or more after diagnosis.
Stage 2
Almost 70 out of 100 people (almost 70%) will survive their cancer for 5 years or more after diagnosis.
Stage 3
More than 40 out of 100 people (more than 40%) will survive their cancer for 5 years or more after diagnosis.
Stage 4
Around 15 out of 100 people (around 15%) will survive their cancer for 5 years or more after being diagnosed.
Cancer survival by stage at diagnosis for England, 2019
Office for National Statistics
These statistics are for net survival. Net survival estimates the number of people who survive their cancer rather than calculating the number of people diagnosed with cancer who are still alive. In other words, it is the survival of cancer patients after taking into account that some people would have died from other causes if they had not had cancer.
These 5 year statistics don’t take into account the age of the people with cervical cancer. Statistics that do take into account the age (age-standardised statistics) are not available.
Without age standardisation, the survival differences between the 4 stage groups can be influenced by the age of the people in each stage group, in addition to their disease progression or treatment.
We should not use these non age-standardised figures to compare survival with other groups, such as different cancer types, stages, or populations from other countries.
In these figures some of the differences in survival between early and late stage diagnosis is probably because more early stage cases are in younger people, and younger people generally have higher survival than older people.
Survival for all stages of cervical cancer
Generally, for people with cervical cancer in England:
- more than 80 out of every 100 (more than 80%) will survive their cancer for 1 year or more after they are diagnosed
- more than 60 out of every 100 (more than 60%) will survive their cancer for 5 years or more after diagnosis
- more than 50 women out of every 100 (more than 50%) will survive their cancer for 10 years or more after diagnosis
Cancer survival by stage at diagnosis for England, 2019
Office for National Statistics
These statistics are for net survival. Net survival estimates the number of people who survive their cancer rather than calculating the number of people diagnosed with cancer who are still alive. In other words, it is the survival of cancer patients after taking into account that some people would have died from other causes if they had not had cancer.
What affects survival
Your outcome depends on the stage of the cancer when it was diagnosed. This means how big it is and whether it has spread.
The type of cervical cancer may also affect your likely survival.
About these statistics
The terms 1 year survival and 5 year survival don't mean that you will only live for 1 or 5 years.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) and researchers collect information. They watch what happens to people with cancer in the years after their diagnosis. 5 years is a common time point to measure survival. But some people live much longer than this.
5 year survival is the number of people who have not died from their cancer within 5 years after diagnosis.
