ROCHESTER, N.Y. — “As soon as the urologist said, oh it’s cancer…that is an eye-opener,” says Mark Stiegler, reflecting on his diagnosis six years ago. Stiegler has faced bladder cancer and three bouts of lung cancer. “Now, 4 times later and I may be going into my 5th… you don’t feel that fear,” he said. “I guess I’m somewhat of a survivor, I just say… okay what do I have to do.”
The fight against cancer has seen significant progress, with 70% of patients now surviving beyond five years according to new data from the American Cancer Society.
Dr. Jonathan Friedberg, Director of the Wilmot Cancer Institute, explained the significance of the five-year mark. “For many types of cancer, the 5-year time point might equate with cure, because the risk of cancer returning is generally highest in the first 5 years,” he says.
The Wilmot Cancer Institute treats over 45,000 cancer patients annually. Dr. Friedberg attributes the improved survival rates to advancements in therapy. “I think for many of the cancers, the biggest impact on the survival statistics that we talked about are the therapy revolutions,” he said. “Immunotherapy, this way of training an immune system to fight cancer, precision medicine, where we can target specific genetic defects and really target your treatment to a specific type of cancer, an explosion of new drugs that are available.”
And while doctors and scientists continue to make dramatic progress, they also point to the countless patients who have come through their doors, “being a place that puts hundreds of patients on clinical trials a year, we are now testing treatments that are going to become standard in the future and it’s a very promising time,” Dr. Friedberg says.
While the cancer mortality rate has dropped by 34% since its peak in 1991, incidence rates continue to increase for some common cancers, including breast, prostate, liver, melanoma, pancreas, and endometrial. Lung cancer will cause the most cancer deaths in 2026 according to the report, more than second-ranking colorectal cancer and third-ranking pancreatic cancer combined.
Still, with the advance in treatments, more people are living with cancer than dying of it.
“A nurse said to me, on my first cancer… she said, this is survivable and that was the best thing that she or anybody could have said to me,” Stiegler shared. It’s a sentiment now echoed more often.
The Wilmot Cancer Institute is one of just 73 centers across the nation with a National Cancer Institute (NCI) designation. 85% of all cancer research funding goes to centers with that designation. It has also helped to recruit some of the top cancer doctors and researchers here to Rochester.
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