Small lymphocytic lymphoma

Survival rates are different for each person with small lymphocytic lymphoma. Healthcare professionals use something called prognostic risk categories. These categories group people into different levels of risk to show how the disease might act and what survival chances look like. Prognostic risk categories for small lymphocytic lymphoma include low, intermediate, high and very high. If you are in the low-risk group, your cancer is likely slow-growing, and your chances of living longer are better. If you are in the very high-risk group, your cancer is more serious, and your survival chances are lower. Your risk category is determined by:

• Your age.
• Whether certain gene changes are present in your cancer.
• How much of a specific protein is in your blood.
• The stage of your cancer.

For example, someone in the low-risk category for small lymphocytic lymphoma has a five-year survival rate of about 93%. As the risk gets higher, the survival rate gets lower. The five-year survival rate for someone in the very high-risk category for small lymphocytic lymphoma is about 23%.

Keep in mind that survival statistics take five years to collect. The most recent survival rates include people who had treatment for small lymphocytic lymphoma more than five years ago. These people may not have had access to the latest treatments. Over the last few decades, small lymphocytic lymphoma death rates have been falling and survival rates have been increasing.