‘Blood cancers are a group of diseases with well-established clinical characteristics and very heterogeneous profiles, which are divided into three large groups: lymphoid neoplasms, myeloid neoplasms and histiocytosis,’ explains Dr. Rafael Marcos-Gragera, researcher at the Josep Carreras Leukaemia Research Institute, Doctor in the Girona Epidemiology and Cancer Registry Unit (ICO-Girona) and coordinator of the HematoREDECAN research group, and one of the main authors of the report, which can be downloaded HERE.

In this context, Dr. Mª Victoria Mateos, president of the SEHH and coordinator of the Spanish Myeloma Group of the Spanish Haematology Treatment Programme (GEM-PETHEMA) reveals that ‘one of the main conclusions of the analysis indicates that, in the coming year, 25,770 new cases of blood cancer will be diagnosed in our country and, therefore, it will be the fifth most frequent type of tumour, behind breast, lung, prostate and colon cancers’. Of the total number of new cases, 14,258 will be diagnosed in men and 11,397 in women.

In addition to Mª Victoria Mateos and Rafael Marcos-Gragera, the press conference was attended by Alejandro Martín Garcia Sancho, vice-president of the Spanish Lymphoma Group (GELTAMO) and haematologist at the University Hospital of Salamanca, and José María Ribera Santasusana, also a researcher at the Josep Carreras Institute, coordinator of the Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia Group of the Spanish Haematology Treatment Programme (LAL-PETHEMA) and haematologist at the ICO Badalona-Hospital Germans Trias i Pujol.

Incidence estimates by type

Lymphoid neoplasms are the most frequent, representing 71% of all haematological neoplasms estimated for 2025, with 18,357 new cases. The lymphoid neoplasms with the highest incidence will be mature B-cell neoplasms, which represent 78% of the total, followed by Hodgkin's lymphoma (9%), mature T-cell and NK-cell neoplasms (7%), and precursor cell neoplasms (3%) and non-specific lymphoid neoplasms (3%).

In these estimates for 2025, myeloid neoplasms will account for 28% of all blood cancers, with a total of 7,148 new cases, the most frequent being myeloproliferative neoplasms (39%).

Finally, histiocytosis will account for only 1% of the incidence of all haematological malignancies by 2025, with an estimated 264 new cases.

In conclusion, the report shows that, in recent years, the incidence of lymphoid neoplasms has remained stable while myeloid neoplasms have decreased slightly. In both cases, the incidence is higher in men than in women, increasing with age.

Survival estimates

Overall survival for blood cancers during the period analysed in the report (2009-2018) was 62.1%. Within this group, lymphoid malignancies showed a better prognosis, with a 5-year survival from diagnosis of 67.9%, compared to 49.5% observed for myeloid malignancies. Women had higher survival rates, with 66.1%, compared to 59.0% in men for these tumours as a whole.

However, there are tumours whose five-year survivals is over 80%. Among the lymphoid neoplasms, we find follicular lymphoma (86.8%), Hodgkin's lymphoma (83.9%), and chronic lymphatic leukaemia (80.3%), while in the group of myeloid neoplasms we find essential thrombocythemia, with 90.3%, followed by polycythaemia vera (89.5%).

Blood cancer in children

The report also includes data on the child population (0-14 years). The main data is that, next year, a total of 445 new cases of blood cancer are expected to be diagnosed, of which 64% correspond to leukaemia (287 new cases) and 36% to lymphoma (158 cases), with no increase in the incidence in this population group.

With regard to survival estimates five years after diagnosis, the average is 84.5%, with no differences by sex. With children under one year of age presenting the lowest survival values (71.1%), followed by those diagnosed between 10 and 14 years of age, with a survival of 79.3%. In contrast, children diagnosed between 1 and 9 years of age showed very similar survival rates of around 87%.

According to the type of pathology, differences in survival were observed, with higher survival rates for lymphoma (93.3%) and lower survival rates for leukaemia (82.1%).