survive after five years?

[Eway]

This sentence is confusing to me:

"Lung cancer has a low cure rate; 7% of sufferers survive after five years."

Does this mean the sufferers survive after five years of treatment (which doesn't sound logical) or the sufferers survive for five years only after being treated?

[Mariner]

It means that only 7% survive for 5 years or more (while 93% die within 5 years). The sentence doesn't reveal any information about treatment (i.e. whether these percentages involve treatment or not), but our knowledge of the world allows us to conclude that quite probably it does imply treatment

[MikeNewYork]

Originally Posted by Eway

This sentence is confusing to me:

"Lung cancer has a low cure rate; 7% of sufferers survive after five years."

Does this mean the sufferers survive after five years of treatment (which doesn't sound logical) or the sufferers survive for five years only after being treated?

If the article is talking about "cure rates", it is likely that treatment was involved. Incidentally, the five years is probably from the time of diagnosis.