Did You Know????

The relative five-year Leukemia survival rate has more than tripled in the past 45 years for patients with leukemia. In 1960-63, when compared to a person without leukemia, a patient had a 14% chance of living five years. By 1975-77, the five year relative survival rate had jumped to 35%, and in 1996-2003 the overall relative survival rate was nearly 50%. The relative survival rates differ by the age of the patient at diagnosis, gender, race and type of leukemia. During 1995-2003 relative survival rates overall were:

• Acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL): 65.3% overall; 90.4% for children under 5 (Team Honoree Brian DuBois was diagnosed with ALL leukemia)
• Chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL): 74.8% overall
• Acute myelogenous leukemia (AML): 20.7% overall; 54.1% for children under 15 (Team Honoree Harry Drake was diagnosed with AML leukemia at age 6 months)
• Chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML): 44.4%
• The leukemia death rate for children 0-14 years of age in the United States has declined 70% in the last three decades. Despite this decline, leukemia causes more deaths than any other cancer among children under age 20.

An estimated 245,225 people in the United States are currently living with or are in remission from leukemia, and an estimated 44,790 new cases of leukemia will be diagnosed in 2009 alone.

xoxoxo
Ashley