There are many different factors that can impact lung cancer survival rates. These factors include the type of cancer, the overall condition of the patient and the stage they are at when diagnosed. Lung cancer survival rates are often expressed in terms of a five-year survival rate, which is the percentage of patients who have cancer and survive for at least five years after their cancer is diagnosed.
Studies indicate that five-year lung cancer survival rates vary by stage. Patients who are in stage 0 have the best lung cancer survival rates, with approximately 50 percent at five years. Around one-quarter of patients in stage II survive for five years, as compared to eight percent of patients in stage III and only two percent in stage IV. Generally, small cell lung cancer tends to advance more quickly into a terminal disease. Ten to fifteen percent of patients who have limited-stage small cell lung cancer, and around one to two percent of those with extensive-stage cancer, survive for five years.
The estimates of lung cancer survival rates do not take into account current treatment advances that may increase the chances of survival, because they are usually calculated for a five-year period that does not take the previous year into account. Furthermore, every patient responds to treatment differently and estimates do not take into account individual factors that may improve or worsen the lung cancer survival rate.
Lung cancer survival rates in the US climbed throughout the 1980s, and started to drop for men in the 90s. However, lung cancer survival rates for women have not seen a similar decrease. More than fifty thousand current and former smokers have been enrolled in the National Lung Screening Trial in an attempt to find out if CT scans and chest x-rays taken before the start of lung cancer symptoms may improve early diagnosis and survival.