Results: in both sexes, the common types of cancer were; Kaposi's sarcoma (KS) (48.0%), cervical cancer (21.1%), cancer of oesophagus (14.8%), liver cancer (3.1%) and breast cancer (2.5%). In Males; KS, cancer of the oesophagus, cancer of the liver, bone cancer and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma were the commonest accounting for 67.4%, 19.4%, 3.9%, 1.0% and 1.0% respectively. In females; cancer of the cervix, KS, cancer of the oesophagus, cancer of the breast and cancer of the liver were the top five cancers accounting for 41.6%, 29.2%, 10.3%, 4.9% and 2.3% respectively. Of the 830 cancer patients with complete 5-year follow-up data, the overall median survival time was 9 months. Absolute survival rates at 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 years or more were 31.8%, 18.0%, 12.5%, 7.8% and 6.0% respectively. The survival rates for top five cancers at 1, 2, 3, and 4 years or more were; KS (n= 397): 47.1%, 30.2%, 21.4% and 13.1%; cancer of the cervix (n=174): 31.0%, 10.3%, 5.2% and 2.9%; cancer of the oesophagus (n=124): 4.0%, 2.4%, 1.6% and 1.6%; liver cancer (n=26): 19.2%, 3.8%, 3.8% and 3.8% and breast cancer (n=21): 9.5%, 0%, 0%, 0% respectively. The risk of death was high in females than males, in those aged 50 years or more than in those aged less than 50 (p<0.05).Conclusion: this study demonstrated that cancer survival from the time of diagnosis in Malawi was poor with median survival time of about 9 months and only 6% of patients survived for 5 years or more. Improvement of early detection, diagnostic capability, access to treatment and palliative care services could improve cancer survival.
