Eye cancer survival
Survival depends on many factors, so no one can tell you exactly how long you’ll live. It depends on your individual condition, type of cancer, treatment and level of fitness.
Statistics for eye cancer are harder to estimate than for other, more common cancers.
Some of the statistics have to be based on a small number of people. Remember, they can't tell you what will happen in your individual case.
Your doctor can give you more information about your own outlook (prognosis).
Survival for all stages and types of eye cancer
There are no UK-wide statistics available for different types and stages of eye cancer. The type of cancer refers to the type of cell that it starts in. The stage of eye cancer depends on how big the cancer is and if it has spread.
Eye cancer is rare and so the figures available are for all eye cancers in England.
Generally for people with eye cancer in England:
- around 95 out of every 100 (around 95%) will survive their cancer for 1 year or more after they are diagnosed
- 80 out of every 100 (80%) will survive their cancer for 5 years or more after diagnosis
1 and 5 year survival statistics
Cancer survival in England, cancers diagnosed 2016 to 2020, followed up to 2021
NHS England
These figures are for people diagnosed with eye cancer in England between 2016 and 2020.
These statistics are for net survival. Net survival estimates the number of people who survive their cancer rather than calculating the number of people diagnosed with cancer who are still alive. In other words, it is the survival of cancer patients after taking into account that some people would have died from other causes if they had not had cancer.
What affects survival
Your outcome depends on a number of factors including:
- the stage of the cancer when it was diagnosed
- the type of eye cancer
- which parts of the eye are involved
Sometimes doctors can test for changes in the chromosomes of an eye melanoma that give an idea about how the cancer will behave and how likely it is to spread.
It is important to see your doctor if you have symptoms. Your treatment is is more likely to be successful if your cancer is diagnosed early.
About these statistics
5 year survival doesn't mean you will only live for 5 years. It relates to the number of people who live 5 years or more after their diagnosis of cancer. Many people live much longer than 5 years.
Clinical trials
Taking part in clinical trials can help to improve treatments for eye cancer. We have detailed information about clinical trials on this website.
