Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2024 Jun 22;4(3):203-213.
doi: 10.1016/j.jncc.2024.06.005. eCollection 2024 Sep.

Cancer survival statistics in China 2019-2021: a multicenter, population-based study

Hongmei Zeng  1 , Rongshou Zheng  1 , Kexin Sun  1 , Maigeng Zhou  2 , Shaoming Wang  1 , Li Li  1 , Ru Chen  1 , Bingfeng Han  1 , Meicen Liu  1 , Jinhui Zhou  1 , Mengyuan Xu  1 , Lijun Wang  2 , Peng Yin  2 , Baohua Wang  2 , Jinling You  2 , Jing Wu  2 , Wenqiang Wei  1 , Jie He  1
Affiliations

Cancer survival statistics in China 2019-2021: a multicenter, population-based study

Hongmei Zeng et al. J Natl Cancer Cent. .

Abstract

Background: A milestone goal of the Healthy China Program (2019-2030) is to achieve 5-year cancer survival at 43.3% for all cancers combined by 2022. To assess the progress towards this target, we analyzed the updated survival for all cancers combined and 25 specific cancer types in China from 2019 to 2021.

Methods: We conducted standardized data collection and quality control for cancer registries across 32 provincial-level regions in China, and included 6,410,940 newly diagnosed cancer patients from 281 cancer registries during 2008-2019, with follow-up data on vital status available until December 2021. We estimated the age-standardized 5-year relative survival overall and by site, age group, and period of diagnosis using the International Cancer Survival Standard Weights, and quantified the survival changes to assess the progress in cancer control.

Results: In 2019-2021, the age-standardized 5-year relative survival for all cancers combined was 43.7% (95% confidence interval [CI], 43.6-43.7). The 5-year relative survival varied by cancer type, ranging from 8.5% (95% CI, 8.2-8.7) for pancreatic cancer to 92.9% (95% CI, 92.4-93.3) for thyroid cancer. Eight cancers had 5-year survival of over 60%, including cancers of the thyroid, breast, testis, bladder, prostate, kidney, uterus, and cervix. The 5-year relative survival was generally lower in males than in females. From 2008 to 2021, we observed significant survival improvements for cancers of the lung, prostate, bone, uterus, breast, cervix, nasopharynx, larynx, and bladder. The most significant improvement was in lung cancer.

Conclusions: Progress in cancer control was evident in China. This highlights the importance of a comprehensive approach to control and prevent cancer.

Keywords: Cancer survival; China; Healthy China 2030; Policy evaluation; Population-based.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper. The sponsors of the study had no role in study design, data collection, analysis, and interpretation. The first author and corresponding authors had full access to all data and were responsible for the decision to publish.

Figures

Fig 2
Fig. 1
Structure of cohort, period, and hybrid approaches to survival analysis for patients diagnosed during 2008–2019 and followed up to Dec 31, 2021. The column represents each year of diagnosis. The numbers within the cells indicate the years of follow-up since diagnosis. Four calendar periods of diagnosis were defined in the study: 2008–2010, 2011–2014, 2015–2018 and 2019–2021. Patients diagnosed during 2008–2010 and 2011–2014 had a potential follow-up of 5 years by the end of 2021. Cohort analysis was used to estimate their survival. Period analysis was used to estimate the 5-year survival for the 2015–2018 period (the shaded blue area indicates the databases needed for deriving recent period estimates). For the prediction of the 5-year survival during 2019–2021, hybrid analysis was applied using the proportions of slash line areas in the database, because there were more recent follow-up data than incident data.
Fig 2
Fig. 2
Age-standardized 5-year relative survival of cancer patients in China in 2019-2021 overall, and by sex. (A) Age-standardized 5-year relative survival of cancer patients in China in 2019–2021.
Fig 2
Fig. 2. Continued
(B) Age-standardized 5-year relative survival of cancer patients in China by sex in 2019–2021.
Fig 3
Fig. 3
Five-year relative survival for all cancers combined and 25 cancer types by age and sex in China during 2019–2021.
Fig 4
Fig. 4
Trends in age-standardized 5-year relative survival for all cancers combined in 2008–2021 in China.
Fig 5
Fig. 5
Increasing trends of cancer types in age-standardized 5-year relative survival by cancer site in 2008–2021 by using data from 47 continuous registries.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Allemani C, Matsuda T, Di Carlo V, et al. Global surveillance of trends in cancer survival 2000-14 (CONCORD-3): analysis of individual records for 37 513 025 patients diagnosed with one of 18 cancers from 322 population-based registries in 71 countries. Lancet. 2018;391(10125):1023–1075. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(17)33326-3. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. The State Council of the People's Republic of China. Healthy China 2030. Accessed March 27, 2024. https://www.gov.cn/zhengce/2016-10/25/content_5124174.htm?eqid=e47aef7c0....
    1. The State Council of the People's Republic of China. Healthy China Program (2019-2030). Accessed March 27, 2024. https://www.gov.cn/xinwen/2019-07/15/content_5409694.htm.
    1. The State Council of the People's Republic of China. Long-term plan of National Non-Communicable Disease of China 2017-2025. Accessed March 27, 2024. https://www.gov.cn/zhengce/content/2017-02/14/content_5167886.htm.
    1. National Health Commission of the People's Republic of China. Cancer Prevention and Control Action Plan (2019-2022). Accessed March 27, 2024. https://www.gov.cn/zhengce/zhengceku/2019-11/13/content_5451694.htm.

LinkOut - more resources