What to know about leukemia survival rates
There are several factors on leukemia survival rates such as if it is Acute or Chronic, the age at diagnosis and how early it is caught.
“It is also one of the most common cancers for people under age 20. The survival rate is higher for younger people.”
Anecdotal:
Some 30 years ago I worked with and was friends with a young woman whose 3-year-old was diagnosed with leukemia who was being treated at Johns Hopkins. It was a rough road – chemo left the child bald and often sick but she started getting better. I lost track of them but I ran into the mom +/- 24 years later and asked about her daughter. She was doing great, had just graduated college and entering into post graduate studies and was engaged to be married.
I knew a woman who was on a non-profit board I was on and she had been diagnosed with a form of chronic leukemia at around 30 years old and when I knew her at age 40, she was doing great and required little treatment at that point.
The wife of my ex-husband’s nephew was diagnosed with acute leukemia in her mid-30’s and died less than 6 months later. But in her case she’d been feeling unwell for the better part of a year (fatigued and often catching colds and other viruses) and had been “diagnosed” with all sorts of things – Lyme’s, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome until she finally went to a specialist who ordered a bone marrow biopsy, but by then it was pretty much too late.
A 21-year-old and otherwise healthy individual, depending on the type and how long he’d had it, could have an excellent outcome. In this case he was unaware he had leukemia and so likely wasn’t having any symptoms of it as yet so presumably it was early onset. So yes, he didn’t die of leukemia, he died of COVID-19.
I think the 21 year-old DID have leukemia symptoms. The article reporting his death said he had contracted COVID-19 while “battling” leukemia.