In the first survey of its kind, the National Cancer Center has disclosed that people newly diagnosed with cancer have a 58 percent chance of surviving for 10 years. The data should not lead patients to feel either pessimistic or optimistic about their prospects, but rather serve as a guide for them on how to achieve the best results in battling the disease.

The center analyzed the cases of some 35,000 cancer patients who were diagnosed between 1999 and 2002 at 16 facilities belonging to the Japanese Association of Clinical Cancer Centers. While the average survival rate in all types of cancers for five years is 63.1 percent, the survival rate 10 years after the diagnosis slightly falls to 58.2 percent.

How people feel about the figures — whether they think they are high or low — may depend on their individual situations and their views of life. But it is important to note that the survival rate — and the change in the rate after five years and 10 years — differs greatly according to the type of cancer as well as when the patients are diagnosed and how they are treated. That information can help patients learn what they need to do to increase their chances of survival.