Jan 24, 2026
3 min read
70% of Cancer Patients Now Live More Than Five Years: How Research, Testing and Treatment in Rochester Helped Reach This Milestone
ROCHESTER, N.Y.- "As the urologist said, and it's cancer... it's an eye-opener," says Mark Stigler, reflecting on his diagnosis six years ago.Stigler suffers from bladder cancer and three lung injuries.“Now, 4 times later and I might be going to my fifth… you don't feel that fear,” he said.
New data from the American Cancer Society has seen significant progress in the fight against cancer, with 70% of patients now living more than five years.
Dr. Jonathan Friedberg, director of the Wilmot Cancer Institute, explained the importance of the five-year period.
Wilmot Cancer Institute treats more than 45,000 cancer patients each year.Dr. Friedberg attributes the improved survival rates to advances in treatment.“For many cancers, I think it’s the treatment revolution that has the biggest impact on the survival statistics we’re talking about,” he said.“There is an explosion of new drugs that can be targeted and actually used to treat specific types of cancer.”
And while doctors and scientists continue to make remarkable progress, they also focus on the countless number of patients who pass through their doors, "because we are a place where hundreds of patients go through clinical trials every year, we are now testing treatments that will be the standard of the future, and this is a good time," said Dr.Friedberg.
While cancer death rates have decreased by 34% since their peak in 1991, the incidence of common cancers, including breast, prostate, liver, melanoma, pancreatic and endometrial cancers, continues to rise.According to the report, lung cancer will cause the most cancer deaths in 2026, more than stage two colon cancer and stage three pancreatic cancer combined.
However, with advances in treatment, more people are living with cancer than dying from it.
"The nurse told me that with my first cancer ... she said, 'This is survivable,' and that was the best thing she or anyone else ever said to me," Stigler shared.It's a feeling that comes up all too often now.
The Wilmot Cancer Institute is one of 73 centers nationwide designated by the National Cancer Institute (NCI).85% of all cancer research funding goes to centers with this designation.It also helped attract some of the country's leading oncologists and researchers to Rochester.
