Survival for acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL)

Survival depends on different factors. So no one can tell you exactly how long you will live.

Doctors usually work out the outlook for a certain disease by looking at large groups of people. Because this cancer is less common, survival is harder to estimate than for other, more common cancers.

Some of the statistics have to be based on a small number of people. Remember, they can't tell you what will happen in your individual case.

Your doctor can give you more information about your own outlook (prognosis ).

The statistics on this page are for people of all ages who have ALL. We have a separate page about survival for children with cancer. This includes statistics for children with ALL.

About these statistics

The terms 1 year survival and 5 year survival don't mean that you will only live for 1 or 5 years.

The NHS, other health organisations, and researchers collect information. They watch what happens to people with cancer in the years after their diagnosis. 5 years is a common time point to measure survival. But some people live much longer than this.

5 year survival is the number of people who have not died from their cancer within 5 years after diagnosis.

Survival statistics for acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL)

There are no UK-wide statistics available for ALL survival. Statistics for people diagnosed with ALL are available for England. The figures for 1 year survival are for people diagnosed between 2018 and 2020. The figures for 5 year survival are for people diagnosed between 2014 and 2016.

Generally for all people with ALL in England:

• around 85 out of 100 people (around 85%) will survive their leukaemia for 1 year or more after being diagnosed

• 70 out of 100 people (70%) will survive their leukaemia for 5 years or more after being diagnosed

This is for all ages. Younger people tend to have a better prognosis than older people.

Statistics for people diagnosed with ALL by age are available from one area of England between 2010 and 2019.

For those aged between 15 and 39:

• 65 out of 100 (65%) will survive their leukaemia for 5 years or more after diagnosis. If you are aged between 15 and 24, your prognosis might be better than this

For those aged 40 and older:

• around 25 out of 100 people (around 25%) will survive their leukaemia for 5 years or more after diagnosis

What affects survival?

Your age affects how well leukaemia responds to treatment. Younger people have a better prognosis. 

Outlook for ALL depends on other things such as:

• what type of ALL you have
• if you have a high number of white blood cells in the blood at diagnosis
• the changes found in the chromosomes or genes of your cancer cells
• if you have leukaemia cells in your spine and brain (central nervous system or CNS)
• if your ALL that doesn't go away with treatment. This is called refractory ALL
• if your ALL comes back after treatment. This is called relapsed ALL

Some specific genetic abnormalities in your leukaemia cells may make the leukaemia harder to treat successfully. But some changes may make it easier as they might allow treatment to be more targeted.

Your outlook is also affected by how well the leukaemia responds to treatment and how long it takes to get into remission. Remission means that there is no sign of leukaemia in your bone marrow when looked at under a microscope. And the numbers of blood cells have returned to normal.

More statistics

For more in-depth information about survival and acute lymphoblastic leukaemia, go to our Cancer Statistics section.