Survival rate is defined as the percent of people who survive a disease such as cancer for a specified amount of time, but may be presented in a number of different ways. Survival rates does not indicate if a cancer is cured or if treatment is completed. Survival rates are also statistics looking at a broad range of people. They do not necessarily predict how an individual with a particular subtype of cancer will do. Learn about the common definitions describing survival with cancer, and the limitations of statistics.
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Definitions
There are a number of different terms used to describe survival with cancer, and these can be confusing when looking at information about your own disease. The different terms tend to be used in different settings and with cancers that have different prognoses.
Survival Rates
Survival rate is a statistic that describes how long an “average” person with cancer will survive for a particular amount of time. Survival rates may be given as 1-year survival, 2-year survival, 5-year survival, and so on. For example, if the 5-year survival rate for a particular cancer is 34%, this means that 34 out of 100 people initially diagnosed with that cancer would be alive after 5 years.
The termsurvival rate(especially 5-year survival) is often used when a significant number of people survive with the cancer for a period of time, for example, with breast cancer.
Median Survival
Overall Survival (OS)
Overall survival(OS) is another term often used in reference to treatments for cancer. It refers to the time which begins at diagnosis (or at the start of treatment) and up to the time of death.It is usually used as an indication of how well a treatment works.
Progression-Free Survival (PFS)
Progression-free survival(PFS) is a term often used in clinical trials evaluating new drugs and treatments. It refers to the amount of time between when a treatment for cancer begins, and when cancer progresses or death occurs.
Disease-Free Survival
Disease-free survivalis a measure of the number of people who are expected to be free from cancer for a particular amount of time.This is also sometimes referred to as “relapse-free survival.” Note that overall survival includes both those who are surviving without any evidence of cancer and those who are surviving but still have cancer present in their body.
The term disease-free survival might be preferable when looking at the effects of treatment with a cancer that tends to recur after treatment. This is particularly true with breast cancer, in which late recurrences are common. If a drug reduced the risk of recurrence, but women still lived for, say, three years, after their recurrence, the survival rates may not change. But a drug that reduced the risk of recurrence would show a superior disease free survival rate.
Cause-Specific Survival
Cause-specific survivalis an important term in clinical studies and refers to the number of people surviving a particular cancer after a period of time. An example is the easiest way to describe this. Whereas overall survival from lung cancer includes not only those people who die from lung cancer, but also heart disease, other cancers, and any other condition, cause-specific survival refers to only the likelihood that someone would survive lung cancer alone. This is important in evaluating potential treatments. A hypothetical strong drug that damages the heart may increase cause-specific survival from lung cancer but could actually lower overall survival rates due to deaths from heart disease.
Event-Free Survival
Event-free survivalrefers to the percentage of people who survive without a particular complication over a period of time. For example, this term could represent the number of people who did not develop neurological symptoms or bone pain due to the spread of lung cancer to the brain or the bones.
Limitations of Statistics and Survival Rates
Keep in mind that survival rates are based on statistics and look at the population as a whole.
Statistics Don’t Account for Variations in People or Tumors
Your prognosis may be different based on many variables, such as your general health, and new treatments that have become available. Statistics also often group subtypes of cancer together. For example, even though the prognosis of lung cancers that have mutations in the EGFR (epidermal growth factor receptor) gene differs from those that do not have targetable mutations, the survival rates of both would be quoted as being the same.
Statistics Are Dated
By the time survival rates are published, the statistics are frequently several years old. For example, when reporting the average 5-year survival rate for a type and stage of cancer, statistics are looking at people who were diagnosed at least 5 years before the study results were reported. With advances in the treatment of even advanced cancers, these numbers may not take into account changes in current treatment recommendations, and your own expected survival rate could be considerably higher. For example, many of the targeted therapies and immunotherapy drugs now available for lung cancer were not available when current statistics were recorded (in 2024, these numbers represent survival rates for people diagnosed between 2012 and 2018).
If you’ve been recently diagnosed with cancer, keep in mind that there are many reasons to feel hope.
This article lists survival based on different types and stages of lung cancer. Note that even within the same type and stage, cancers are all different, and all have different molecular profiles. These are further broken down into:
Statistics
Keep in mind that survival rates are based on statistics and look at the population as a whole. Your prognosis may be different based on many variables, such as your general health, and new treatments that have become available. By the time survival rates are published, the statistics are frequently several years old. For example, when reporting the average 5-year survival rate for a type and stage of cancer, statistics are looking at people who were diagnosed at least 5 years before the study results were reported. With advances in the treatment of even advanced cancers, these numbers may not take into account changes in current treatment recommendations, and your own expected survival rate could be considerably higher.
With regard to lung cancer, it is even more important to consider that survival rates may not reflect your outcome from the disease. There have been many recent advances in treatment, and an example may help explain this much better. Of the cancer drugs approved from 2020 to the Spring of 2024, about 17% of approvals were for lung cancer treatment. Also, there are many clinical trials currently underway, and more in the works. If you’ve been recently diagnosed with lung cancer, keep in mind that there are many reasons to feel hope.
2 SourcesVerywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.American Society of Clinical Oncology.Understanding statistics used to guide prognosis and evaluate treatment.National Cancer Institute.Understanding cancer prognosis.
2 Sources
Verywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.American Society of Clinical Oncology.Understanding statistics used to guide prognosis and evaluate treatment.National Cancer Institute.Understanding cancer prognosis.
Verywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.
American Society of Clinical Oncology.Understanding statistics used to guide prognosis and evaluate treatment.National Cancer Institute.Understanding cancer prognosis.
American Society of Clinical Oncology.Understanding statistics used to guide prognosis and evaluate treatment.
National Cancer Institute.Understanding cancer prognosis.
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