What are survival rates?

Survival rates provide a percentage of how many people with the same condition are alive a certain number of years after receiving a diagnosis.

Survival rates are an estimate and can give people an idea of how successful treatment may be.

Survival rates consider large groups of people with the same type of disease but do not predict what may happen to each individual.

Survival rates also come from previous data, so current survival rates may be better with recent advances in research and newer treatments.

Relative survival rates for lymphoma compare people with the same type and stage of cancer with people without the condition.

For example, if the 5-year relative survival rate is 80% for people with a certain type and stage of lymphoma, it means that 80% of people with the cancer are around 80% as likely to be alive 5 years after diagnosis as people without the cancer.

The National Cancer Institute maintains the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database, which tracks cancer survival rates in the United States.

The SEER database provides survival rates for lymphoma using the following stages:

Localized: Lymphoma remains in one lymph node area, one lymphoid organ, or one organ outside of the lymphatic system.

Regional: Lymphoma has spread from one lymph node area to a nearby organ, is in two or more lymph node areas on one side of the diaphragm, or is considered bulky disease.

Distant: Lymphoma has spread outside the lymphatic system and nearby organs to a distant area, such as the lungs or lymph nodes on either side of the diaphragm.

The SEER database also provides an overall survival rate for all the stages combined.