Bone cancer is a terrible and debilitating disease. Just like any form of cancer, it can cause serious discomfort over time, and cause your quality of life to degenerate as the cancer spreads and progresses. It is likely that if you or a loved one has recently received a prognosis of bone cancer, then you will want to learn as much as you can about the condition, as this knowledge can go some way to reducing your anxieties and helping you to feel more positive about your future battle.
Importantly, it's worth remembering that the statistics surrounding bone cancer life expectancy are based on a group of people as a whole, which means that your situation could be very different to the situation that is implied by general numbers and percentages.
Bone Cancer Life Expectancy in General:
Most doctors and oncology experts find that treatments for bone cancer are quite successful in most patients, particularly if the cancer has not yet had the chance to spread to other areas of the body. According to research conducted in Wales and England, around 60 out of every 100 people will survive for five or more years following the primary diagnosis of bone cancer. In the US, the overall five-year survival rate that has been recorded for this kind of cancer in children and adults is approximately 70%.
Don't forget, however, that these numbers apply to circumstances wherein the cancer has not yet spread. This also means that it does not apply to cancers that have spread into the bones from other areas of the body.
Predicting Bone Cancer Life Expectancy:
Most experts agree that it is very difficult and complicated to predict who will come out on top when it comes to bone cancer life expectancy. As with any and all forms of cancer, as well as various other forms of long term diseases and illnesses, the outcome of how any person responds to bone cancer will depend on a variety of different factors. For instance, there are many indicators of how well people are likely to do in their recovery, and some of the most important of these factors include how much the cancer has grown, the stage of the cancer, and the grade of the cancer.
If your level of bone cancer is of a low grade and it has not spread any further than its initial placement, then you should have a good chance of being cured. Of course, it's also worth noting that there is some evidence to suggest that certain bone cancers which have already begun to spread can also respond well to quick and effective treatment. Patients with osteosarcoma who have a small amount of cancer in the bone that has spread into the lungs can be cured, and the survival rate for these individuals is usually between 60-80%.
In other cases, the survival rate for people who have bone cancer that has spread beyond the bone into other parts of the body can be between fifteen and thirty percent.