Survival Rates for Kaposi Sarcoma

Survival rates are a way to measure how many people survive a certain type of cancer over time. They can’t tell you exactly what will happen with any one person, but they may help give you a better understanding of how likely it is that treatment will be successful.

What is a 5-year relative survival rate?

A relative survival rate compares people with the same type and stage of Kaposi sarcoma (KS) to people in the overall population.

For example, if the 5-year relative survival rate for a specific stage of KS is 80%, it means that on average, people who have that cancer are about 80% as likely as people who don’t have that cancer to live for at least 5 years after being diagnosed.

Where do these numbers come from?

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 KS in the United States, based on how far the cancer has spread. However, the SEER database doesn’t group these cancers by the AIDS Clinical Trial Group system (good risk, poor risk). Instead, it groups them into localized, regional, and distant stages:

• Localized: The cancer is confined to one area – for example, the skin, a mucosal surface such as the mouth, or an organ like part of the digestive tract.
• Regional: The cancer has grown outside of the place where it started (such as the skin, mouth, or digestive tract) and into nearby areas or nearby lymph nodes.
• Distant: The cancer has spread to distant parts of the body from where it started.

5-year relative survival rates for Kaposi sarcoma

These numbers are based on people diagnosed with KS from 2015 to 2021.

SEER Stage	5-Year Relative Survival Rate
Localized	84%
Regional	64%
Distant	50%
All SEER stages combined	75%

 

Understanding the numbers

These numbers don’t take everything into account. These survival rates are based only on how far the cancer has spread, which is very important for most types of cancer. But for KS, other factors can be just as important, or even more so. These factors include:

• The type of Kaposi sarcoma you have
• Where it is in your body
• How well your immune system is working
• How well the KS responds to treatment

These numbers apply only to the stage of the cancer when it is first diagnosed. They don’t apply later on if the cancer grows, spreads, or comes back after treatment.

People now being diagnosed with KS may have a better outlook than these numbers show. Treatments have improved over time, and these numbers are based on people who were diagnosed and treated at least 5 years earlier.