Five-year survival rate: All you need to know

When it comes to chronic illnesses like cancer that have a shorter life expectancy, it is important to have a survival rate that estimates the prognosis i.e. the likely course of a medical condition from the point of its diagnosis. Survival rate is the percentage of people in a treatment group suffering from the same disease, who are still alive for a certain period of time after they were diagnosed. That said, while your doctor cannot predict your future, nor can he tell you how the disease will develop, with the help of a survival rate, they can make an estimate on the basis of other people’s experiences.

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In most cases, where the disease has a high mortality rate, survival rates are crucial for the prognosis. Prognosis helps determine whether the signs and symptoms of a particular disease will improve or worsen or remain the same over time, whether the potential for complications will be higher or not or if the quality of life will improve or worsen over time. When it comes to diseases such as cancer, it often uses a five-year survival rate. Five-year survival rate looks at survival 5 years after diagnosis.

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There are two types of 5-year survival rate i.e. absolute and relative survival rates, of which the latter is more commonly used.

– Five year absolute survival rate refers to the percentage of people suffering from a similar disease, who are alive five years after the disease is diagnosed. That means, it does not consider the general population and relies on the percentage of the people with the disease.

– Five year relative survival rate refers to the percentage of people suffering from a similar disease alive five years after the disease is diagnosed, divided by the percentage of the overall population alive after five years. For instance, if the 5-year relative survival rate for a specific stage of cancer is 90%, it means that patients who have cancer are, on average, about 90% as likely as people who don’t have cancer to live for at least 5 years after being diagnosed.

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Five-year survival rate relies on the data provided by the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results database (SEER), maintained by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) in the United States.

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With the help of a 5-year survival rate, doctors can determine the effectiveness of treatments for various diseases and help you understand the course of the medical condition i.e. the prognosis.

If you’re suffering from cancer, the statistics can be used to weigh the pros and cons of different treatments available to you. By looking at how other cancer patients respond to the treatments, you can choose the best suitable treatment option for yourself.

However, the downside of the survival rate is that it does not tell you about your individual chances for cure and survival. It will only give a general idea about most people in your situation, as the estimates are based on thousands of people.

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