Survival for nasopharyngeal cancer
Survival depends on different factors. So no one can tell you exactly how long you will live.
Doctors usually work out the outlook for a certain disease by looking at large groups of people. Because this cancer is less common, survival is harder to estimate than for other, more common cancers.
Some of the statistics have to be based on a small number of people. Remember, they can't tell you what will happen in your individual case.
Your doctor can give you more information about your own outlook (prognosis).
Survival by stage
There are no UK wide statistics available for nasopharyngeal cancer survival by stage.
The statistics below come from America. They come from the National Cancer Institute's SEER programme. They are for people diagnosed with nasopharyngeal cancer between 2012 and 2018.
Please be aware that these figures might not be a true picture of survival in the UK. This is due to differences in the American health care systems, data collection and the population.
The American statistics are split into 3 stage groups – localised, regional and distant cancers. In the UK, your doctor might not use these terms. Instead, they might describe your cancer as a number stage (stage 1 to 4). The following descriptions are a guide to help you understand whether your cancer is localised, regional or distant. This isn’t straight forward and will depend on your individual situation. Talk to your specialist if you are unsure which group you are in.
There are 3 groups:
- Localised cancers are early stage cancers that have not spread beyond the nasopharynx or into nearby
lymph nodes 
. - Regional cancers have either spread into nearby lymph nodes. Or there is advanced local spread into nearby structures (for example T4 tumours).
- Distant cancers have spread to other parts of the body, away from the nasopharynx.
Localised
More than 80 out of 100 people (more than 80%) survive their cancer for 5 years or more after diagnosis.
Regional
More than 70 out of 100 people (more than 70%) survive their cancer for 5 years or more after diagnosis.
Distant
Around 50 out of 100 people (around 50%) survive their cancer for 5 years or more after diagnosis.
Survival rates for nasopharyngeal cancer
American Cancer Society website, accessed May 2024.
The American Cancer Society relies on information from the SEER database, maintained by the National Cancer Institute (NCI).
These statistics are for relative survival. Relative survival takes into account that some people will die of causes other than cancer. The statistics are from America. They calculate relative survival using the general survival of the US population. This might not be a true picture of general survival in the UK population.
Survival for all stages of nasopharyngeal cancer
The figures come from NHS Digital using the Get Data Out programme. The statistics are from 2015 to 2017.
5 year survival statistics are not available, so we present 4 year survival statistics below.
Generally for people with nasopharyngeal cancer in England:
- 75 out of 100 people (75%) will survive their cancer for 1 year after diagnosis
- almost 60 out of 100 people (almost 60%) will survive their cancer for 4 years after they are diagnosed
National Cancer Registration and Analysis Service (NCRAS), detailed statistics from the ‘Get Data Out’ programme. Accessed website May 2024
These statistics are for net survival. Net survival estimates the number of people who survive their cancer rather than calculating the number of people diagnosed with cancer who are still alive. In other words, it is the survival of cancer patients after taking into account that some people would have died from other causes if they had not had cancer.
What affects survival?
Your outcome depends on the stage of the cancer when it was diagnosed. This means how big it is and whether it has spread. The type of cancer can also affect your likely survival.
Your general health and fitness also affect survival because overall, the fitter you are, the better you may be able to cope with your cancer and treatment.
About these statistics
The terms 1 year survival and 5 year survival don't mean that you will only live for 1 or 5 years.
The NHS, other health organisations, and researchers collect information. They watch what happens to people with cancer in the years after their diagnosis. 5 years is a common time point to measure survival. But some people live much longer than this.
5 year survival is the number of people who have not died from their cancer within 5 years after diagnosis.
