Are there any other medical statistical terms I should be aware of?

The 5 year survival rate tells you how many people are alive at the end of 5 years but it doesn’t tell you how many of these people are in complete remission at the end of 5 years (in other words how many people have survived for 5 years and have no evidence of cancer).

So here are two more specific terms:

Disease-free 5 year survival rate. This is the percentage of people who are not only alive after 5 years but are in complete remission.

Progression-free 5 survival rate. This is the percentage of people who are alive after 5 years but who still have evidence of cancer, although the cancer isn't progressing. This includes people who may have had some success with treatment but not enough to completely eradicate their cancer.

Two other medical statistical terms that you should be aware of are relative risk and absolute risk:

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