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Advanced lung cancer can be one of the more difficult types
of cancer to treat successfully, but it’s important to keep in mind that our
understanding of the disease is changing every day. Your prognosis, or outlook,
depends on your body, the type of lung cancer you have, and the treatment plan
that’s developed for you.
No one can tell you exactly how long you might live with
stage 4 lung cancer. However, there’s a lot of research under way that
might increase your long-term survival odds. It’s possible to look at
statistics from past years to get an idea about average lung cancer survival
rates, but keep in mind your individual situation is unique. A conversation
with your doctor can help you better understand your individual outlook.
Survival Rates Are Slowly Improving
A cancer survival rate can tell you the percentage of people
with a certain type of cancer who survive for a certain amount of time, usually
five years. Lung cancer has lower survival rates than other
types of cancer. Unfortunately, early stage lung cancer usually doesn’t cause
any symptoms, and most lung cancers are diagnosed after they have already
spread beyond the lungs. Since lung cancer is usually diagnosed in a more
advanced stage, it makes effective treatment more difficult.
Lung cancer survival rates also depend on the type of cancer.
There are two types of lung cancer: small cell lung cancer and non-small cell
lung cancer (NSCLC). The first type, small cell lung cancer, causes around 13%
of all lung cancers. Smoking has been shown to be a huge risk factor for
developing this type of lung cancer. Nonsmokers almost never develop small cell
lung cancer. Around 87% of lung cancer is diagnosed as NSCLC and tobacco
remains the #1 risk factor for NSCLC as well.
The five-year survival rate for lung cancer patients has
been improving, in part due to better cancer treatments. Now, up to 54% of
patients are expected to live for five years if their lung cancer is caught
early, before it has spread outside the lungs. If the cancer is diagnosed after
it has spread to nearby organs in the chest, the survival rate is around 26%.
In the case of late stage lung cancer that has spread widely throughout the
body, five-year survival rates are hovering around 4%.
Hope Through Better Treatment Options
Even though the survival rate for advanced lung cancer is
much lower than for early-stage lung cancers, there’s still hope in the form of
new treatment options that are being investigated. Treatments are constantly
changing as doctors discover new information about cancer. If you’re curious
whether any new treatments might work for you, check with your doctor.
Several studies have been published recently that highlight
new breakthroughs in cancer medications, including chemotherapeutic drugs, new
combinations of existing chemotherapy drugs, and other types of medications
like immunotherapy and targeted molecular therapy. These medications may cause
tumors to stop growing or spreading by affecting blood vessels or certain
proteins within the tumors. Results so far have been promising, and further
research through clinical trials is continuing today.
There have also been improvements in the delivery of
radiation therapy, which might be a good choice in your treatment plan. Some
newer types of radiation machines are capable of more precisely targeting your cancer.
This allows your doctor to deliver your radiation dose more accurately and
without causing you so many side effects.
While it’s true stage 4 lung cancer survival rates are lower
than survival rates for early-stage lung cancer, there’s still hope that new
and developing treatments might be able to help you live a longer, fuller life
after your diagnosis. Doctors continue to study lung cancer and are constantly
working to find more effective treatments that can increase survival rates. If
you have any questions about new treatments that could benefit you, ask your
doctor about your individual situation and what options might be the best
choice for you.
