Trends in net survival for 1,834,894 patients with cancer from 16 population-based cancer registries in Japan,...

In 2018, CONCORD-3 updated long-term surveillance of cancer survival trends worldwide. In this monograph, we conducted further analyses and examined trends in net survival using the Japanese data during 2000-14.

Sixteen population-based cancer registries in Japan contributed data to CONCORD-3 with anonymized individual records on 2 237 861 patients diagnosed with one of 15 adult cancers (15-99 years), and brain tumors and hematological malignancies in children (0-14 years). Five-year net survival was estimated with the Pohar Perme estimator and age-standardized with International Cancer Survival Standard weights. We estimated survival for three calendar periods, by age group, sex, anatomic site or morphology, and by stage at diagnosis.

Five-year net survival improved between 2000-04 and 2010-14 for several cancers, including brain tumors (27.9%-46.3%), ovarian cancer (35.5%-46.3%), stomach cancer (50.5%-60.3%), lymphoid malignancies (47.5%-57.3%), myeloid malignancies (24.8%-33.3%), and esophageal cancer (27.7%-36.0%). Breast cancer, childhood lymphoma, and prostate cancer showed consistently high or improving survival (85.9%-93.0%). In contrast, survival for melanoma remained unchanged. Net survival was low for pancreatic cancer (6.9%-8.3%). Among selected countries, survival was higher in Japan for esophageal (36.0%), liver (30.1%), and lung cancers (32.9%). Survival for melanoma, hematologic malignancies, and childhood cancers was lower in Japan than in Western countries.

Net survival in Japan improved substantially for several cancers, but survival for pancreatic cancer remained low. International collaboration is crucial to accelerate the development of effective cancer control strategies.