What Are the Survival Rates for People With Brain Tumors?

Survival rates show the percentage of people with a certain type and stage of cancer who survive it for a certain period of time after they are diagnosed. A 5-year survival rate is the percentage of people who are alive 5 years after they are diagnosed. These are the people it includes.

• Those who are free of disease (there are no signs of cancer)

• Those who have few, or no signs or symptoms of cancer

• Those who are being treated for cancer

Many people included in the 5-year survival rate live much longer than 5 years after diagnosis. Also, because the statistic is based on people diagnosed and initially treated more than 5 years ago, it’s possible that the outlook could be better today. People who are newly diagnosed often have a more favorable outlook. That’s because of improvements in treatment.

Survival rates are based on large groups of people. They cannot be used to predict what will happen to a particular person. No 2 people are exactly alike. Treatment and responses to treatment vary greatly.

The 5-year relative survival rate for all people with brain tumors varies with age and tumor type. Here are some 2005 statistics from the American Cancer Society on the 5-year survival rates for brain tumors. These were not updated in 2006.

• For children from ages 0 to 14, it is 73%.

• For young adults from ages 15 to 44, it is 55%.

• For those between the ages of 45 to 64, it is 16%.

• For adults older than 65, it is 5%.