How long can you live with leukemia?

The common types of leukemia are acute leukemia, chronic granulocytic leukemia, and chronic lymphocytic leukemia. Patients with acute leukemia generally have an average survival time of only 3 months without special treatment. With the current aggressive treatment, a number of patients can survive for a long time. In particular, acute lymphoblastic leukemia has the best prognosis if the age is 1-9 years old and the white blood cell count is <50×10^9/L. If complete remission is followed by aggressive consolidation and maintenance therapy, about 60% of patients can survive for a long time or even be cured. However, the prognosis of acute lymphoblastic leukemia in adults is not as good as that in children, with a survival rate of only about 30% for more than 3 years. However, the prognosis of M3, or acute promyelocytic leukemia, in acute myeloid leukemia is very good for most patients if early death can be avoided, with 80% of patients being cured. For patients with chronic granulocytic leukemia, the median survival is about 3 years, with some entering the accelerated phase in 3-5 years, and a few patients can survive for 10-20 years. In contrast, the duration of chronic lymphocytic leukemia varies, with some patients surviving up to 10 years or more, and others only 2-3 years.