For three of the most prevalent cancers - prostate, breast and colon - the 5-year survival rates are well over 50%; for cancer types that are less common the survival rates are lower.
The good news: some very prevalent types of cancer -- like breast and prostate -- have now achieved high 5-yr. survival rates. But other types of cancer (including lung cancer) have low survival rates and those rates have not improved much during the past 50 years. Survival rates are shown by red slices of these pie charts: