Leukemia, lymphoma, myeloma and myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) are types of cancer that can affect the bone marrow, the blood cells, the lymph nodes and other parts of the lymphatic system.
Click on the links below to view statistics about each disease:
- General Blood Cancers
- Leukemia
- Lymphoma
- Myeloma
- Myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS)
- Myeloproliferative Neoplasms (MPNs)
General Blood Cancers
New Cases
- Approximately every 3 minutes, one person in the US is diagnosed with leukemia, lymphoma or myeloma.
- An estimated combined total of 186,400 people in the US are expected to be diagnosed with leukemia, lymphoma or myeloma in 2021.
- New cases of leukemia, lymphoma and myeloma are expected to account for 9.8 percent of the estimated 1,898,160 new cancer cases that will be diagnosed in the US in 2021.
Prevalence
- Prevalence is the estimated number of people alive on a certain date in a population who previously had a diagnosis of the disease. An estimated 1,519,907 people in the United States (US) are living with or in remission from leukemia, lymphoma, myeloma, myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) or myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPNs).
Survival
- Relative survival compares the survival rate of a person diagnosed with a disease to that of a person without the disease. The most recent survival data available may not fully represent the outcomes of all current therapies and, as a result, may underestimate survival to a small degree.
Deaths
- Approximately every 9 minutes, someone in the US dies from a blood cancer.* This statistic represents approximately 158 people each day or more than six people every hour.
- Leukemia, lymphoma and myeloma are expected to cause the deaths of an estimated 57,750 people in the US in 2021.
- These diseases are expected to account for 9.5 percent of the deaths from cancer in 2021, based on the estimated total of 608,570 cancer deaths.
*Data specified for “blood cancer” include leukemia, lymphoma and myeloma, and do not include data for myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) or myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPNs).
Leukemia
New Cases
- In 2021, 61,090 people are expected to be diagnosed with leukemia.
Prevalence
- An estimated 397,501 people are living with or in remission from leukemia in the US.
Survival
- The 5-year relative survival rate for leukemia has more than quadrupled, from 14 percent in whites from 1960 to 1963 (the only data available) to 66.4 percent for all races from 2010 to 2016.
- From 2010 to 2016, the five-year relative survival rates overall were
- ALL – 72.1 percent overall, 92.5 percent for children and adolescents younger than 15 years, and 94.4 percent for children younger than 5 years
- AML – 29.8 percent overall and 70.6 percent for children and adolescents younger than 15 years
- CLL – 88.6 percent
- CML – 71.7 percent*
*The survival rate of CML in clinical trials is higher than the survival rate reported here, based on SEER data. It is speculated that close clinical monitoring and better medication adherence in clinical trials are associated with a lower risk of disease progression and higher rates of survival.
Deaths
- Approximately 23,660 deaths (13,900 males and 9,760 females) in the US are expected to be attributed to leukemia in 2021.
- From 2013 to 2017, leukemia was the sixth most common cause of cancer deaths in males and the seventh most common cause of cancer deaths in females in the US.
Hodgkin (HL) and Non-Hodgkin (NHL) Lymphoma
New Cases
- About 90,390 people in the United States (US) are expected to be diagnosed with lymphoma in 2021 (8,830 cases of HL and 81,560 cases of NHL).
Prevalence
- There are an estimated 825,651 people living with, or in remission from, lymphoma in the US.
- There are 152,671 people living with or in remission from Hodgkin lymphoma
- There are 672,980 people living with or in remission from non-Hodgkin lymphoma
Survival
- The 5-year relative survival rate for people with HL has more than doubled, from 40 percent in whites from 1960 to 1963 (the only data available) to 89.6 percent for all races from 2010 to 2016. The 5-year relative survival rate is 95.1 percent for all people with HL who were younger than 45 years at diagnosis.
- HL is now considered to be one of the most curable forms of cancer.
- The 5-year relative survival rate for people with NHL has risen from 31 percent in whites from 1960 to 1963 (the only data available) to 75.1 percent for all races from 2010 to 2016. The 5-year relative survival rate is 84.7 percent for all people with NHL who were younger than 45 years at diagnosis.
Deaths
- In 2021, an estimated 21,680 members of the US population are expected to die from lymphoma (960 HL and 20,720 NHL).
Myeloma
New Cases
- An estimated 34,920 new cases of myeloma (19,320 males and 15,600 females) are expected to be diagnosed in the US in 2021.
Prevalence
- An estimated 138,415 people in the United States (US) are living with or in remission from myeloma.
Survival
- Five-year relative survival increased from 12 percent from 1960 to 1963 (for whites, the only data available) to 55.1 percent from 2010 to 2016 (for all races and ethnicities).
- The 3-year survival rate as of January 1, 2017, was 69.1 percent (for all races and ethnicities).
- The 5-year survival rate is 76.8 percent for people with myeloma who were younger than 45 years at diagnosis.
Deaths
- Approximately 12,410 deaths from myeloma are expected in 2021.
Myelodysplastic Syndromes (MDS)
New Cases
- For the 5-year period from 2013 to 2017, there were 75,497 new cases of MDS throughout the United States (US), averaging 15,099 cases per year.
Prevalence
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An estimated 58,471 people in the US are living with or in remission from MDS.
Survival
- For 2010-2016, the 5-year relative survival rate for MDS was 38.3 percent.
Deaths
- The SEER report reflects mortality data from the National Cancer for Health Statistics (NCHS) database, in which MDS is not included as a cause of death. Therefore, mortality statistics were not reported in 2021 at the time of the Facts 2020-2021 publication.
Myeloproliferative Neoplasms
New Cases
For the 5-year period from 2013 to 2017, there were 61,572 new cases of MPNs throughout the United States (US), averaging 12,314 cases per year.
Prevalence
An estimated 99,869 people in the United States (US) are living with or in remission from MPNs.
Survival
For 2010-2016, the 5-year relative survival rate for MPNs was 85.0 percent.
Deaths
- The SEER report reflects mortality data from the National Cancer for Health Statistics (NCHS) database, in which MDS is not included as a cause of death. Therefore, mortality statistics were not reported in 2021 at the time of the Facts 2020-2021 publication.
Source:
- Facts 2020-2021. Facts 2020-2021 provides updates from the American Cancer Society’s Cancer Facts & Figures 2021 (published online in 2021, https://www.cancer.org/research/cancer-facts-statistics. html) for estimated numbers of new blood cancer cases and estimated numbers of deaths due to blood cancers. The incidence rates, prevalence and mortality data in Facts 2020-2021 reflect the statistics from the National Cancer Institute’s Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) Program, Cancer Statistics Review (CSR) 1975-2017 (published online in April 2020, www.seer.cancer.gov). National incidence counts are generated from the United States Cancer Statistics (USCS) Public Use Database for 2001-2017 (www.cdc.gov/cancer/uscs/public-use/). Incidence rates by state are provided by the North American Association of Central Cancer Registries (NAACCR), Cancer in North America: 2013-2017 (published online in May 2020, www.naaccr.org).