The National Cancer Institute's Surveillance Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) statistics classifies bone cancer and cancers of the joints together as one statistic, so in order to discuss bone cancer generally, we will have to discuss it in terms of cancers of the bones and joints.
Annual Diagnoses
The number of diagnoses of cancers of the bones and joints made annually in the United States is extraordinarily small, among the smallest of all cancers measured by the National Cancer Institute, with an estimate of about 2,890 such diagnoses made each year, with the number of men (1,600) outnumbering women (1,290) by a small but significant margin.
Age At Diagnosis
The median age at diagnosis for cancer of the bones and joints is fairly young—just 41 years old. Shockingly, almost one third of all diagnoses are made in people under the age of 20, and almost 45% of all diagnoses are made in people under the age of 34.
Mortality
The median age at death for cancer of the bones and joints is 58. Broken down, those statistics—the percentage of people with this cancer and their age at death—look like this:
- 13.4% died under age 20
- 14.9% between 20 and 34
- 6.3% between 35 and 44
- 10.7% between 45 and 54
- 12.0% between 55 and 64
- 14.1% between 65 and 74
- 17.0% between 75 and 84
- 11.6% 85 and older
Survival Rate
The National Cancer Institute's SEER statistics do not offer survival statistics that are broken down by disease stage, as they do for many other cancers. The reason for this is unknown but one obvious explanation would be the lack of sufficient data.
What they do offer is a 5-year relative survival rate, which "measures the survival of the cancer patients in comparison to the general population to estimate the effect of cancer." In cancer speak and when referring to a cancer that is considered to be moderately aggressive or aggressive, surviving for five years after diagnosis is equivalent to being cured of the disease.
Thus, in cancers of the bones and joints, the overall 5-year relative survival rate is 66.6%.
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