Who gets leukemia?
Each year in New York State, about 1,450 men and 1,150 women (including children) get leukemia. In New York, more than 700 men and 600 women, again including children, die from this disease each year. Although it is often thought of as a children’s disease, most cases of leukemia occur in older adults. Leukemia is ten times more common in adults than in children and more than half of all leukemia cases occur in people over the age of 65. The five year survival for leukemia has tripled in the past 40 years. For children, the improvement in survival has been even more dramatic. In 1960, only 4% of children with the most common form of childhood leukemia (ALL) lived five years. Now, the five year survival rate for children with this disease (ALL) is greater than 85%.
