What Are The Survival Rates For Leukemia?
The average life expectancy for adults with acute myelogenous leukemia for example, is approximately two years, while the average life expectancy for a child would be about five years.
For acute lymphocytic leukemia, the average life expectancy for a child could be as high as 10 years, as opposed to an adult, where the average life expectancy is approximately three years.
Now, when you look at the chronic leukemias, they are rarely, if ever, seen in children. Chronic lymphocytic leukemia is almost never seen in children, and chronic myelogenous leukemia is generally not seen until the teens, if at all.
For chronic myelogenous leukemia, the average life expectancy is about five years. For chronic lymphocytic leukemia, the average life expectancy is from five to 10 years.
The fortunate thing about children is that the success rates with conventional therapy are extremely high.
For acute lymphocytic leukemia, we can now predict that greater than 90 percent of children will achieve remission with conventional therapy, and more than 70 percent will have long-term survival and cure with treatment.
With acute myelogenous leukemia, again, the remission rates are relatively high. The cure rate is not as high, but still higher than for adults.
The overall five-year survival rate has tripled in the past 40 years for patients with leukemia. In 1960, the overall five-year survival rate was 14 percent, by the 1970s it had reached 35 percent, and now the overall five-year survival rate is 46 percent.
During 1992-1998, the relative survival rates were:
Acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL): 63.5 percent; 85 percent for children
Chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL): 73 percent
Acute myelogenous leukemia (AML): 19 percent; 46 percent for children
Chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML): 34.5 percent
At present, there are approximately 166,359 people are living with leukemia in the United States.
Deaths
Approximately 21,700 deaths in the United States are expected to be attributed to leukemia in 2002 (12,100 males and 9,600 females).
There will be an estimated 4,500 deaths from chronic lymphocytic leukemia and 1,400 deaths from acute lymphocytic leukemia. There will be an estimated 7,400 deaths from acute myelogenous leukemia and 2,000 deaths from chronic myelogenous leukemia. Unclassified forms of leukemia will account for 6,400 additional deaths.
 | Leukemia is the most common cause of cancer death among men under age 40. |
| Among women, leukemia is the leading cause of cancer death before age 20. |
| The estimated number of deaths attributed to leukemia in the United States are about 25 percent higher for males than females. |
The leukemia death rate for children in the United States has declined 61 percent over the last three decades. Despite this decline, leukemia remains a leading cause of death among children under age 15. Approximately 672 deaths from childhood leukemia (all disease types) are expected in 2002.
