Cancer Survival in England, cancers diagnosed 2018 to 2022, followed up to 2023

Stage at diagnosis of cancer is an important factor that affects cancer outcomes. Cancers diagnosed at stages 1 and 2 (early) are usually associated with better prognosis on average.

Within this chapter, survival estimates are age-standardised and show 1-year and 5-year net survival for adults diagnosed with cancer between 2018 and 2022, with follow-up through to the end of 2023. Table 2 in the data download includes both net and overall survival estimates by stage at diagnosis for 43 cancer groups. Estimates by stage are not available for some cancer groups (e.g. brain cancer, BCC, cSCC). This is because of complexities within different subtypes of a cancer site or because staging systems do not exist for all or some subtypes of the cancer. Some of the survival estimates of the 43 cancers by stage at diagnosis did not meet the validation criteria and therefore have not been included in the commentary or data tables.  

Five-year survival for lung cancer in males is 59.6% for stage 1 and 4.2% for stage 4. For prostate cancer, five-year survival is 102.3% for stage 1 and 54.8% for stage 4.

Net survival for all stages combined is affected by the proportion of cases diagnosed at each stage, which varies considerably by cancer group. For some cancer groups, the survival for all stages combined is close to that for early stage diagnoses, for example, cancer of the uterus. While for other cancer groups it is closer to that for diagnoses at stages 3 and 4, for example, Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). 

Figure 3: 1-year age-standardised net survival for cancer of the uterus by stage at diagnosis, females, diagnosed in the period 2018 to 2022 and followed up to 2023 

Notes:  

1. Survival estimates were age-standardised using a standard set of age-specific weights provided by the International Cancer Survival Standard (ICSS).  

2. The dotted line represents survival for all stages combined including tumours with missing stage and unstageable tumours.  

As shown in Figure 3, for cancer of the uterus, survival at one year after diagnosis for all stages combined (89.0%) is slightly below that of stages 1 (98.9%) and 2 (93.6%) compared to stages 3 (83.8%) and 4 (46.9%). This is largely influenced by the fact that almost two-thirds of females were diagnosed at stage 1 (61.6%).  

Figure 4: 1-year age-standardised net survival for non small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) by stage at diagnosis, persons, diagnosed in the period 2018 to 2022 and followed up to 2023  

Notes:  

1. Survival estimates were age-standardised using a standard set of age-specific weights provided by the International Cancer Survival Standard (ICSS).  

2. The dotted line represents survival for all stages combined including tumours with missing stage and unstageable tumours.  

As shown in Figure 4, survival for NSCLC at one year after diagnosis for all stages combined (49.6%) is between survival for stages 3 (55.0%) and 4 (23.9%). This is largely influenced by the fact that 42.7% of persons are diagnosed at stage 4.