5 months Ago
Significant Progress Over Three Decades
Thirty years ago, only 51 percent of all cancer patients in the Netherlands had survived four years after their diagnosis. Today, that figure is 72 percent. The advances are attributed to medical advancements, in particular therapies and drugs.
"The fact that we are diagnosing more cases of cancer every year is good news, but survival is also increasing," said Otto Visser, head of the Netherlands Cancer Registry (NKR) and of the IKNL. "All that hard work in new treatments and new medicines is starting to deliver."
Age Gap in Survival Rates
The evidence reveals a disparity in survival of patients, consistently favouring those who are younger. Four-year survival rates are also about 10 percent higher among people under 65 than among those who are 65 and older. Some of the most cutting-edge therapies — including chemotherapy, stem cell transplants and complex surgeries — were developed for children, who frequently can withstand more aggressive treatment.
There has been a substantial increase in survival among older patients in recent years, but differences remain.
Wide Differences Among Cancer Types
There is also a vast difference in overall survival rates between cancers. Cancer — of the skin, breast, prostate, and testes — has a better than 90 percent chance of a four-year survival rate. They are much less curable, in contrast to patients with either pancreatic cancer or metastasised from an unknown site of origin, where the prognosis is very grim, in less than 10% of cases.
