On Jan. 13, 2026, The American Cancer Society (ACS) released Cancer Statistics, 2026, the organization’s annual report on cancer facts and trends. The findings show, for the first time, the five-year relative survival rate for all cancers combined reached 70% for people diagnosed during 2015-2021 in the United States. 

Survival gains since the mid-1990s are especially notable for people diagnosed with more fatal cancers, such as myeloma (from 32% to 62%), liver cancer (7% to 22%), and lung cancer (15% to 28%). These important findings are published in CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians, the flagship journal of ACS, alongside its consumer-friendly companion, Cancer Facts & Figures 2026, available on cancer.org. 

Since its first publication in 1951, the annual ACS Cancer Statistics report has been the gold standard of cancer surveillance research in the U.S. ACS researchers analyze and disseminate data on cancer occurrence, including new cancer cases and deaths in the current year, to inform cancer control and improve public health. For this year’s study, ACS researchers compiled the most recent findings on population-based cancer occurrence and outcomes using data collected by central cancer registries (incidence through 2022) and the National Center for Health Statistics (mortality through 2023).  

In 2026 in the U.S., approximately 2,114,850 new cancer diagnoses (5,800 each day) are projected to occur, and 626,140 people will die from the disease. Although the cancer mortality rate has continued to decline through 2023, dropping by a total of 34% since its peak in 1991 and averting 4.8 million cancer deaths, incidence continues to increase for many common cancers, including breast, prostate, liver (female), melanoma (female), oral cavity, pancreas, and uterine corpus (endometrial). 

Other highlights from the report include: 

• Five-year survival has improved dramatically for distant-stage cancer since the mid-1990s, doubling for all cancers combined (from 17% to 35%), for melanoma (16% to 35%), and for rectal cancer (8% to 18%).  

• Lung cancer will cause the most cancer deaths in 2026, more than second-ranking colorectal cancer and third-ranking pancreatic cancer combined.   

• For the three in four people diagnosed with lung cancer at an advanced stage, five-year survival has increased since the mid-1990s from 20% to 37% for regional-stage disease and from 2% to 10% for distant-stage disease.   

• Native American people have the highest cancer mortality, including death rates about two times those of White people for cancers of the kidney, liver, stomach, and uterine cervix. 

“For decades, the federal government has been the largest funder of cancer research, which has translated to longer lives for people with even the most fatal cancers,” explained Shane Jacobson, CEO of the American Cancer Society and the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network (ACS CAN). “But now, threats to cancer research funding and significant impact to access to health insurance could reverse this progress and stall future breakthroughs.”