Photo/Illutration Fumihiko Wakao, center, director for the Center for Cancer Control and Information Services of the National Cancer Center, announces at a news conference in Tokyo on Dec. 23 about the publication of cancer patients’ five-year survival rates. (Naoyuki Himeno)

The National Cancer Center in Tokyo on Dec. 23 for the first time published the five-year survival rates of patients diagnosed with various types of cancer ranging in age from children under 15 to adults under 40.

The five-year survival rate of children under 15 diagnosed with leukemia, which is a common form of cancer in childhood, stood at 88 percent. Children with a brain tumor showed a lower survival rate at 74.6 percent.

For those in the AYA generation (adolescent and young adult), which is people between 15 and 39, diagnosed with breast cancer, the survival rate was 90 percent. Breast cancer cases occur in large numbers in the AYA age range. 

AYA generation patients diagnosed with cervical and uterine cancer showed a five-year survival rate of 89 percent.

Of the child patients, the five-year survival rate was highest among those with a germ cell tumor, at 96.6 percent, while it was lowest among children diagnosed with a bone tumor, at 70.5 percent. For the AYA generation, those with thyroid cancer showed the highest survival rate, at 99.2 percent.

The five-year survival rate is the percentage of cancer patients who are still alive five years after their diagnoses.

Support for younger cancer patients is being called for because monitoring the progression of the disease for a longer period of time is particularly important for them.

The National Cancer Center calculated the five-year survival rates by extracting data on children under 15 and those in the AYA generation from the data on about 880,000 patients diagnosed with cancer at a total of 437 hospitals across Japan in 2013 and 2014.

5-YEAR SURVIVAL RATES

For children
Leukemia 88 percent
Lymphoma 90.7 percent
Brain tumor 74.6 percent
Neuroblastoma 78.6 percent
Retinoblastoma 95.4 percent
Renal tumor 93.8 percent
Liver tumor 87.1 percent
Bone tumor 70.5 percent
Soft tissue tumor 79.3 percent
Germ cell tumor 96.6 percent
Other cancers 91 percent

For AYA generation (only the 5-year survival rates of those diagnosed with major cancers are shown below)
Leukemia 75 percent
Lymphoma 90.1 percent
Brain and spinal cord tumor 84.3 percent
Germ cell tumor and other cancers 95 percent
Thyroid cancer 99.2 percent
Breast cancer 90 percent
Cervical and uterine cancer 89 percent
Bowel cancer 74.8 percent
Stomach cancer 61.7 percent

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