Survival statistics for adrenal gland cancer
Survival statistics for adrenal gland cancer are very general estimates and must be interpreted very carefully. Because these statistics are based on the experience of groups of people, they cannot be used to predict a particular person’s chances of survival.
There are many different ways to measure and report cancer survival statistics. Your doctor can explain the statistics for adrenal gland cancer and what they mean to you.
Net survival
Net survival represents the probability of surviving cancer in the absence of other causes of death. It is used to give an estimate of the percentage of people who will survive their cancer.
In Canada, 5-year net survival statistics for adrenal gland cancer are included in a group called other endocrine cancers, which includes similar cancers that are grouped and reported together. This statistic does not necessarily reflect the actual survival for the individual cancers within the group.
The 5-year net survival for other endocrine cancers is 63%. This means that about 63% of people diagnosed with other endocrine cancer will survive for at least 5 years.
Survival by stage and tumour type
Survival varies with each stage and particular type of tumour for adrenal gland cancer.
Survival for adrenal gland cancer by stage is reported as 5-year relative survival. Relative survival looks at how likely people with cancer are to survive after their diagnosis compared to people in the general population who do not have cancer but who share similar characteristics (such as age and sex).
There are no specific Canadian statistics available for the different stages or types of adrenal gland cancer. The following information comes from a variety of sources. It includes statistics from other countries that are likely to have similar outcomes as in Canada.
Adrenocortical carcinoma (ACC) survival
|
Stage |
5-year relative survival |
|---|---|
|
local – cancer is only in an adrenal gland (stage 1 or stage 2) |
65% |
|
regional – cancer has grown into nearby tissues or spread to nearby lymph nodes (stage 3) |
44% |
|
distant – cancer has spread to other parts of the body (stage 4) |
7% |
Cancerous pheochromocytoma survival
The total 5-year relative survival for cancerous pheochromocytoma is 65%. The 5-year relative survival for cancerous pheochromocytoma that is only in the adrenal gland (local) is 83%. Statistics for regional and distant disease are not available because the number of cases is very small.
Questions about survival
Talk to your doctor about your prognosis (predicting the outcome). A prognosis depends on many factors, including:
- your health history
- the type of cancer
- the stage
- certain features of the cancer
- the treatments chosen
- how the cancer responds to treatment
Only a doctor familiar with these factors can put all of this information together with survival statistics to arrive at a prognosis.