Question: Does prognosis survival percentages include upto treatment? Or beyond? I am looking at information on laryngeal cancer... and the prognosis is 62%... what does that mean...I know it is survival rate... but is that upto treatment... or even after treatment? I DO have a follow-up with a doctor... but I was just curious now!
Answer: You have to be very careful about interpreting these numbers. A 62% survival rate really mean nothing without more context- for instance at how many years (2, 5, 10, or what?) Also, as you point out, it may be overall survival for "all comers", whether treated or not, OR it may specifically refer to patients who underwent your specific planned therapy. Finally, it can be overall survival, disease- or cause-specific survival, progression-free survival, etc, all of which mean different things (see here http://lymphoma.about.com/od/clinicaltrials/tp/survivalterms.htm for more info on that).
Usually oncologists quote 5 yr survival rates, though sometimes they are "all comers" and sometimes they are based on a specific therapy. Ask your doc specifically how he arrived at that number.
Blessings
