Survival for haematological malignancies in Europe between 1997 and 2008 by region and age: results of EUROCARE-5, a population-based study

{Background More effective treatments have become available for haematological malignancies from the early 2000s, but few large-scale population-based studies have investigated their effect on survival. Using EUROCARE data, and HAEMACARE morphological groupings, we aimed to estimate time trends in population-based survival for 11 lymphoid and myeloid malignancies in 20 European countries, by region and age. Methods In this retrospective observational study, we included patients (aged 15 years and older) diagnosed with haematological malignancies, diagnosed up to Dec 31, 2007, and followed up to Dec 31, 2008. We used data from the 30 cancer registries (across 20 countries) that provided continuous incidence and good quality data from 1992 to 2007. We used a hybrid approach to estimate age-standardised and age-specific 5-year relative survival, for each malignancy, overall and for five regions (UK, and northern, central, southern, and eastern Europe), and four 3-year periods (1997-99, 2000-02, 2003-05, 2006-08). For each malignancy, we also estimated the relative excess risk of death during the 5 years after diagnosis, by period, age, and region. Findings We analysed 560 444 cases. From 1997-99 to 2006-08 survival increased for most malignancies: the largest increases were for diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (42.0% [95% CI 40.7-43.4] to 55.4% [54.6-56.2], p<0.0001), follicular lymphoma (58.9% [57.3-60.6] to 74.3% [72.9-75.5], p<0.0001), chronic myeloid leukaemia (32.3% [30.6-33.9] to 54.4% [52.5-56.2], p<0.0001), and acute promyelocytic leukaemia (50.1% [43.7-56.2] to 61.9% [57.0-66.4]