– Why is cancer treatment measured in 3 and 5 year survival rates?

Question

Is cancer so “uncurable” we only hope to extend the patient’s life and not cure it completely?

In: Biology

Answer 1

Another factor to consider is that survival rates of 5 years, etc, are often based on studies that are nearly 10 years old. Cancer treatments are improving at a very fast pace, and cancers that had relatively low 5 year survival rates 10 years ago often have much better survival rates if you were to look at newer cases.