Survival rates for cancer patients derived from population-based data are a fundamental means of monitoring the effectiveness of treatment for the community at large. We used South Australian Cancer Registry data to study survival by cancer site from date of diagnosis in 1977-79 to August 1980. One-year and two-year cumulative percentage survival rates for all types of invasive cancer were 64% (+/- 0.5%) and 54% (+/- 0.5%) respectively. We anticipate that these findings will provide a yardstick for intra-hospital survival analyses.