The information here focuses on primary bone cancers (cancers that start in bones) that most often are seen in adults. Information on Osteosarcoma, Ewing Tumors (Ewing sarcomas), and Bone Metastasis is covered separately.
Survival rates can give you an idea of what percentage of people with the same type and stage of cancer are still alive a certain length of time (usually 5 years) after they were diagnosed. They don't tell you how long a person will live, but they might help give you a better understanding of how likely it is that your treatment will be successful.
Keep in mind that survival rates are estimates and are often based on previous outcomes of large numbers of people who had a specific cancer, but they can’t predict what will happen in any particular person’s case. These statistics can be confusing and might raise more questions for you. Talk with your doctor about how these numbers might apply to your situation.
A relative survival rate compares people with the same type (and often stage) of cancer to people in the overall population. For example, if the 5-year relative survival rate for a specific type and stage of bone cancer is 80%, it means that people who have that cancer are, on average, about 80% as likely as people who don’t have that cancer to live for at least 5 years after being diagnosed.
The American Cancer Society relies on information from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database, maintained by the National Cancer Institute (NCI), to provide survival statistics for different types of cancer.
The SEER database tracks 5-year relative survival rates for different types of bone cancer in the United States, based on how far the cancer has spread. The SEER database, however, does not group cancers by MSTS or TNM stages (stage 1, stage 2, stage 3, etc.). Instead, it groups cancers into localized, regional, and distant stages:
These numbers are based on people diagnosed with certain types of bone cancer between 2011 and 2017. For rates for some of the other more common types of bone cancer, see Survival Rates for Osteosarcoma or Survival Rates for Ewing Tumors.
SEER stage |
5-year relative survival rate |
Localized |
91% |
Regional |
75% |
Distant |
23% |
All SEER stages combined |
79% |
SEER stage |
5-year relative survival rate |
Localized |
86% |
Regional |
85% |
Distant |
61% |
All SEER stages combined |
79% |
SEER stage |
5-year relative survival rate |
Localized |
87% |
Regional |
74% |
Distant |
42% |
All SEER stages combined |
76% |
Some types of bone cancer are so rare that it can be hard to get accurate survival rates. If you have a type of bone cancer not listed here and you'd like to know more about your prognosis (outlook), talk to your health care team to learn more.
The American Cancer Society medical and editorial content team
Our team is made up of doctors and oncology certified nurses with deep knowledge of cancer care as well as journalists, editors, and translators with extensive experience in medical writing.
SEER*Explorer: An interactive website for SEER cancer statistics [Internet]. Surveillance Research Program, National Cancer Institute. [Cited 2021 September 27]. Available from https://seer.cancer.gov/explorer/.
Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) Program (www.seer.cancer.gov) SEER*Stat Database: Incidence - SEER Research Data, 18 Registries (2000-2018), National Cancer Institute, DCCPS, Surveillance Research Program, released April 2021, based on the November 2020 submission.
Last Revised: March 3, 2022
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