How long can you live with leukemia?
Leukemia is a painful condition for patients and families and leaves a physical and emotional scar. Patients always remember the time they got diagnosed. One of the most common questions is how much time do I have left. But that’s not something we can say exactly because it depends on too many things.
As you have seen in this article, the survival rate of the patient depends on the age and various prognostic factors. The supportive treatment during cancer treatment improves the outcome of the patient. Specific therapy, including chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and bone marrow transplantation in children may help in increasing the survival years.
However, we should never forget the importance of emotional support as another part of the treatment. Support groups, including volunteers working for raising funds, donors, and charities for leukemia patients help a lot in supporting them and making them happier.
Thus, patients with leukemia are much more than a number of remaining weeks, months, or years. Survival rate calculation is not a death sentence, and many patients are given poor chances of survival, but they experience full or partial recovery of their symptoms and regain their quality of life.
References
Meadows, A. T., Kramer, S., Hopson, R., Lustbader, E., Jarrett, P., & Evans, A. E. (1983). Survival in childhood acute lymphocytic leukemia: effect of protocol and place of treatment. Cancer investigation, 1(1), 49-55.
Molica, S. (1991). Progression and survival studies in early chronic lymphocytic leukemia. Blood, 78(4), 895-899.