receiving chemotherapy
Credit: Rhoda Baer
Leukemia is the leading cause of cancer death in the US for men under 40 and women aged 20 and younger, according to a report by the American Cancer Society.
Non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) is also among the 5 leading causes of cancer death for men under 40 and for women age 80 and older.
These data appear in “Cancer Statistics, 2014,” a report published in CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians.
The report includes statistics on cancer incidence and death from 1975 to 2010, as well as projections for 2014.
In the latest data (from 2010), NHL was the fifth leading cause of cancer death for men under 20 and for women over 79. It was the fourth leading cause of cancer death for men ages 20 to 39.
And leukemia was the third leading cause of cancer death for women ages 20 to 39, in addition to being the leading cause of cancer death for women under 21 and men under 40.
However, of all cancer types, leukemia and NHL have seen the largest improvements in survival, according to data comparing 5-year survival rates between 1975-1977 and 2003-2009.
Five-year survival rates for leukemia were 34% for 1975-1977 and 59% for 2003-2009 (P<0.05). For NHL, 5-year survival rates were 47% for 1975-1977 and 71% for 2003-2009 (P<0.05).
Projections for 2014
The report authors took past data into account to make estimates on cancer incidence and death for 2014. They projected that 1,665,540 patients will be diagnosed with cancer this year, and 585,720 patients will die of cancer.
Roughly 79,990 patients will be diagnosed with lymphoma—9190 with Hodgkin lymphoma and 70,800 with NHL. Approximately 18,990 patients will die of NHL, and 1180 will die of Hodgkin lymphoma.
There will be 24,050 new cases of myeloma in 2014 and 11,090 myeloma deaths, the authors said.
This year will see 52,380 patients diagnosed with leukemias—6020 with acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL), 15,720 with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), 18,860 with acute myeloid leukemia (AML), 5980 with chronic myeloid leukemia (CML), and 5800 with other types of leukemia.
And there will be 24,090 leukemia deaths—1440 from ALL, 4600 from CLL, 10,460 from AML, 810 from CML, and 6780 from other leukemias.
For more information, see the complete report.
