Cancer survival rates are increasing

More than 8 million Americans--nearly one in 30--have survived cancer, according to Julia Rowland, PhD, who was recently named director of NCI's Office of Cancer Survivorship.

And, she says, survivorship rates have increased in the past decade because of advancements in cancer treatment and prevention. The five-year survival rate for ren with cancer has improved from 65 percent in the early 1980s to 74 percent in the early 1990s while the five-year survival rate for all cancers improved from 51 percent in the early 1980s to almost 60 percent in the early 1990s.

Today there are 2 million breast-cancer survivors and 1 million prostate-cancer survivors, says Rowland, who is currently the director of psycho-oncology research and co-director of the psycho-oncology program at Georgetown University. She joins NCI in September.

--L. Rabasca

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