Progress in medicine

Cancer diagnosis: chances of survival increased

The chances of survival after a cancer diagnosis have increased further in Austria thanks to medical progress. 63% of all those diagnosed with cancer between 2015 and 2019 were still alive five years later.

In the diagnosis period from 2010 to 2014, the figure was only 61%, according to data from the National Cancer Registry of Statistics Austria. 418,740 Austrians were living with a cancer diagnosis at the beginning of 2024. 

Cancers and their prognosis
The most important factors influencing the chances include tumor location and stage at diagnosis. The prognosis is particularly good for testicular and thyroid cancer, where 96 and 95 percent respectively are still alive after five years. Malignant tumors of the prostate and breast are also among those with a higher probability of survival (95 and 88 percent respectively). Cancer of the lung (25 percent), oesophagus (22 percent), liver (18 percent) and pancreas (12 percent) have a poor prognosis after this period.

From 1983 to 2023, the cancer register recorded around 1.5 million new cases in around 1.4 million people. Of these, 418,740 were still alive at the start of 2024, of which 217,904 were women and 200,836 men - around five out of every 100 people in Austria.

Breast and prostate cancer most common
The overall picture of new cases has remained unchanged. In 2023, 21,821 women and 24,697 men were diagnosed with cancer in Austria. The most common were malignant tumors of the breast in women (6902 cases) and malignant tumors of the prostate in men (7485 cases), followed by malignant tumors of the lung (5232 cases, both sexes combined) and malignant tumors of the colon or rectum (4690 cases, both sexes combined).