Diagnosed with Stage-4 cc w/met to liver in Sept 2014.
Went to American Cancer Society website (and others).
Read & learned all I could.
The HISTORICAL 5-yr survival rate for what I have is 6%.
As a CPA who had several (not just the required one) statistics related courses in college, let me remark some about this...
First this rates are in fact HISTORICAL, meaning they are past observances and NOT predictions.
Second, they include people who have died of ALL causes - not just died from cancer. This includes, old age, heart attacks, murder, auto accidents, and every other cause of death you can think of. Thus, if it had been possible for those dying of other causes to have been eliminated from the statistical sample a priori, the published rates would have been higher. <shrug>
Third, the historical, published rates are AVERAGE(S) without the standard deviation(s) published next to them. (The standard deviation gives the reader of the average some indication of the range of the distribution - Is it wide & flat, or narrow and sharply peaked?) Thus we don't really know anything about the distribution. In fact there is some anecdotal evidence that the nature of the distribution is bi-modal, meaning for instance that we observe in this group that some people live a relatively long time after diagnosis and treatment, and others die off rather quickly. And likely as not most people don't die at the time of the historically published rate. I know of one case where a woman diagnosed with colon cancer lived an additional 18 years, and died, not of cancer, but of a heart attack. <go figure>
Fourth, there is also anecdotal evidence that ATTITUDE (and several other "intangibles") play a part in survival, and that those with good attitudes, good "karma," etc., tend to live longer. (Now while I'm not a big personal subscriber to this view, it does have a lot of anecdotal evidence in its favor.)
I hope this puts the "5-yr survival rate" thing into perspective - they are somewhat helpful, but in no way gospel nor predictive. My oncologist won't even give predictions. Although (humorously to me - I have a strange sense of humor) my surgeon was much less sanguine when he put in my chemo port. He said, "If you are lucky enough to need that removed, come and see me," meaning if I live...