Leukemia, lymphoma, myeloma, myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS), and myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPNs) 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 184,720 people in the US are expected to be diagnosed with leukemia, lymphoma or myeloma in 2023.
- New cases of leukemia, lymphoma and myeloma are expected to account for 9.4 percent of the estimated 1,958,310 new cancer cases that will be diagnosed in the US in 2023.
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 1,629,474 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 157 people each day or more than six people every hour.
- Leukemia, lymphoma and myeloma are expected to cause the deaths of an estimated 57,380 people in the US in 2023.
- These diseases are expected to account for 9.4 percent of the deaths from cancer in 2023, based on the estimated total of 609,820 cancer deaths.
*Data specified for “blood cancer” include leukemia, lymphoma and myeloma, and do not include myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) or myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPNs) due to lack of available data.
Leukemia
New Cases
- In 2023, 59,610 people are expected to be diagnosed with leukemia.
Prevalence
- An estimated 437,337 people are living with or in remission from leukemia in the US.
Survival
- The 5-year relative survival rate for leukemia has more than doubled, from 34 percent for 1975 to 1977 to 69 percent for 2012 to 2018.
- From 2012 to 2018, the five-year relative survival rates overall were
- ALL – 70.8 percent overall, 92.1 percent for children and adolescents younger than 15 years, and 93.3 percent for children younger than 5 years
- AML – 30.5 percent overall and 69.0 percent for children and adolescents younger than 15 years
- CLL – 87.9 percent overall
- CML – 70.4 percent overall.*
*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 23,710 deaths (13,900 males and 9,810 females) in the US are expected to be attributed to leukemia in 2023.
- From 2015 to 2019, 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 89,380 people in the United States (US) are expected to be diagnosed with lymphoma in 2023 (8,830 cases of HL and 80,550 cases of NHL).
Prevalence
- There are an estimated 879,242 people living with, or in remission from, lymphoma in the US.
- There are 159,867 people living with or in remission from Hodgkin lymphoma
- There are 722,631 people living with or in remission from non-Hodgkin lymphoma
Survival
- The 5-year relative survival rate for people with HL has increased more than 26 percent, from 73 percent during the period 1975 to 1977 to 92 percent during the period 2012 to 2018. The 5-year relative survival rate is 95.8 percent for all people with HL who were younger than 50 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 46 percent from 1975 to 1977 to 77 percent from 2012 to 2018. The 5-year relative survival rate is 85.2 percent for all people with NHL who were younger than 50 years at diagnosis.
Deaths
- In 2023, an estimated 21,080 members of the US population are expected to die from lymphoma (900 HL and
20,180 NHL).
Myeloma
New Cases
- An estimated 35,730 new cases of myeloma (19,860 males and 15,870 females) are expected to be diagnosed in the US in 2023.
Prevalence
- An estimated 157,561 people in the United States (US) are living with or in remission from myeloma.
Survival
- Five-year relative survival increased from 24 percent from 1975 to 1977 to 60 percent from 2012 to 2018.
- The 3-year survival rate as of January 1, 2019, was 69.0 percent for all races and ethnicities.
- The 5-year survival rate is 76.8 percent for people with myeloma who were younger than 50 years at diagnosis.
Deaths
- Approximately 12,590 deaths from myeloma are expected in 2023.
Myelodysplastic Syndromes (MDS)
New Cases
- For the 5-year period from 2015 to 2019, there were 77,646 new cases of MDS throughout the US, averaging 15,529 cases per year.
Prevalence
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An estimated 58,835 people in the US are living with or in remission from MDS.
Survival
- For 2012-2018, the 5-year relative survival rate for MDS was 36.9 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 2023 at the time of this publication.
Myeloproliferative Neoplasms (MPNs)
New Cases
For the 5-year period from 2015 to 2019, there were 67,181 new cases of MPNs throughout the US, averaging 13,436 cases per year.
Prevalence
An estimated 115,125 people in the United States (US) are living with or in remission from MPNs.
Survival
For 2012-2018, the 5-year relative survival rate for MPNs was 88.3 percent.
Deaths
- The SEER report reflects mortality data from the National Cancer for Health Statistics (NCHS) database, in which MPNs are not included as a cause of death. Therefore, mortality statistics were not reported in 2023 at the time of this publication.
Source:
- Facts 2022-2023. Facts 2022-2023 provides updates from the American Cancer Society’s Cancer Facts & Figures 2023 (published online in 2023, 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 2022-2023 reflect the statistics from the National Cancer Institute’s SEER*Explorer: An interactive website for SEER cancer statistics [Internet]. Surveillance Research Program, National Cancer Institute. [Cited 2023 March]. Available from https://seer.cancer.gov/explorer/. Incidence rates by state and national incidence counts are calculated from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s U.S. Cancer Statistics Public Use Databases (https://www.cdc.gov/cancer/uscs/public-use/).