About Rare Cancers (2024)

FAQs

What defines a rare cancer? ›

Rare cancers are those that affect fewer than 40,000 people per year in the U.S. As a group, they make up just over a quarter of all cancers. Because rates of cancer in children are very low, all children's cancers are considered rare. A quarter of all cancer deaths each year are due to rare cancers.

Specific challenges posed by rare cancers:

Late or incorrect diagnosis. Lack of access to appropriate therapies and expertise. Lack of commercial feasibility in developing new therapies. Difficulties in conducting well-powered clinical studies.

Of these, six out of every 100,000 cancer cases in Europe is a rare form². For these patients, it is often tantamount to a difficult treatment journey. On top of learning of their diagnosis, the rarity of the cancer type means that existing health options are inappropriate, few in number, or even non-existent.

Together, these rare cancers represent 20% of all cancers diagnosed in the United States during 2009 through 2013. Of these 181 rare cancers, 119 cancers are considered very rare, that is, with an incidence rate ≤0.5 per 100,000. These very rare cancers represent only about 3% of all cancers diagnosed each year.

However, there's one rare type of thyroid cancer — anaplastic thyroid cancer (ATC) — that's regarded as one of the deadliest diseases in the world. ATC has a death rate of nearly 100% and a median survival time of about four months following diagnosis.

Overall, about 4 of every 10 cases of ALL are in adults. ALL is not a common cancer, accounting for less than half of 1% of all cancers in the United States.

Lung and bronchus cancer is responsible for the most deaths with 125,070 people expected to die from this disease. That is nearly three times the 53,010 deaths due to colorectal cancer, which is the second most common cause of cancer death. Pancreatic cancer is the third deadliest cancer, causing 51,750 deaths.

Merkel cell carcinoma tends to grow fast and to spread quickly to other parts of your body. Treatment options for Merkel cell carcinoma often depend on whether the cancer has spread beyond the skin.

The zebra print ribbon is the awareness ribbon for uncommon or rare diseases and cancers including but not limited to neuroendocrine tumors, carcinoid cancer, Ehlers-Danlos Syndromes, Whipple's disease and awareness of other rare diseases, cancers and disorders.

What are the hardest cancers to fight? ›

Ovarian Cancer

A cancer diagnosis is never good news, but there are five types that are are particularly deadly: pancreatic, ovarian, lung, glioblastoma and triple-negative breast. These cancers are often diagnosed late, can be difficult to remove surgically and rebuff most therapies.

The most common type of cancer on the list is breast cancer, with 313,510 new cases expected in the United States in 2024. The next most common cancers are prostate cancer and lung cancer. Because colon and rectal cancers are often referred to as "colorectal cancers," these two cancer types are combined for the list.

Most cancers start in certain types of cells, such as skin cells and the cells lining the organs of the body. A cancer might be rare because it started in a different type of cell than usual, for example in a bone cell.

The 5-year overall survival of patients with rare cancers is 48.5% and considerably worse than in patients with more common cancers (63.4%) [2].

Which cancer has the lowest survival rate? There are 6 cancers with low survival rates: lung cancer, liver cancer, brain cancer, esophageal cancer, stomach cancer, colon and rectal cancer. According to experts, the above 6 cancers have low survival rates mainly because these diseases are difficult to recognize.