German researchers recently examined data on more than 1.4 million U.S. patients first diagnosed with 24 common forms of cancer between 1998 and 2003 to determine relative survival rates.

Dr. Hermann Brenner and colleagues at the German Cancer Resercher Center in Heidelberg reported significant improvement in five-year survival rates for non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, kidney cancer and leukemia, as well as for cancers of the colon and rectum, prostate and breast. Lung cancer relative survival did not improve and the survival rate for pancreatic cancer improved less than that for other cancers.

Improved survival was noted primarily among patients with regional tumor spread. The study appears in the Aug. 1, 2007, issue of the Journal of Clinical Oncology.