Q. How many days does a person live with blood cancer?
Doctor Answer is medically reviewed by SecondMedic medical review team.
The average life expectancy of someone with blood cancer depends on a variety of factors, including the type and stage of the cancer as well as overall health. Generally speaking, though, according to the National Cancer Institute, patients with leukemia typically have a median survival rate that ranges from less than one year to five years depending on the subtype.
Chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) is a common form of chronic leukemia in adults and has the longest survival rate—over 80% living at least 5 years after being diagnosed. Acute myeloid leukemia (AML), however, is more aggressive and typically requires intensive treatment; typically only 25% live at least 5 years after diagnosis.
Typically for Hodgkin's lymphoma (HL), about half or greater are alive five or more years following diagnosis and those who are not cured by initial therapy may still be successfully treated with salvage therapy and go into long-term remission or even cure. On average about 78-83 percent live for five or more years following their diagnosis.
Myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) can vary greatly depending on how advanced they are when first diagnosed; generally between 10-20 percent survive ten or more years if MDS is detected early enough upon presentation to receive appropriate treatments such as chemotherapy, while only 5-10 percent survive this long if it’s discovered in an advanced stage where more aggressive treatments aren't an option because they weren't started soon enough.
Finally multiple myeloma's prognosis tends to relate closely to age: 20-40 percent of people in their 60s survive longer than 5 years post diagnosis compared to 8-12 percent survivorship rate among those over 75 when it was much poorer until recently due to new advances in treatment options which have made great strides for improving quality outcomes for all types/stages blood cancers like these!