10-year cancer survival rate at 56.3 percent in Japan

April 9, 2019

Tokyo--The 10-year cancer survival rate in Japan stood at 56.3 pct, up 0.8 percentage point from the previous year, the National Cancer Center said in a survey report Tuesday.

The survey covered some 70,000 patients who were diagnosed with cancer between 2002 and 2005 and saw doctors at 20 medical institutions that are members of the Japanese Association of Clinical Cancer Centers.

The survival rate has been gradually rising since the 53.9 pct recorded in the first survey in 2016 for those diagnosed with the disease between 1999 and 2002, on the back of improved cancer therapies and diagnosis technologies.

By cancer type, the survival rate for prostate cancer stood at 95.7 pct, the highest figure, followed by breast cancer, at 83.9 pct, endometrial cancer, at 80 pct, uterine cervix cancer, at 69 pct, colorectal cancer, at 66.3 pct, stomach cancer, at 64.2 pct, lung cancer, at 31 pct, and liver cancer, at 14.6 pct.

The lowest rate was for pancreatic cancer, at 5.4 pct. It is difficult to find pancreatic cancer at an early stage, and no effective therapies have been established for it. Jiji Press