Just how bad is lung cancer prognosis? Is lung cancer life expectancy always poor? Lung cancer remains the foremost cause of cancer death in the world and has beaten heart disease to first place as a smoking-related killer disease. Read on to learn what factors influence lung cancer prognosis, why lung cancer life expectancy is poor and if lung cancer survival rate can be improved.
Lung Cancer Prognosis – What Factors Determine Lung Cancer Survival Rate
The first thing to know about lung cancer is that there are two types – the more common non-small cell lung cancer and the more deadly small cell or oat cell lung cancer. The factors determining lung cancer prognosis are:
- stage – This depends on the size of the tumor, whether it has spread to other parts of the body and blood vessel invasion. The prognosis is poorer if the stage is higher.
- performance status – In general, patients moving around and able to perform their daily activities have a better prognosis than the bed-ridden.
- recent weight loss – Loss of more than 5% of body weight in three to six months before diagnosis is an indicator of poor prognosis.
- other factors – The male sex and certain biochemical markers like raised lactate dehydrogenase levels, reduced serum sodium levels and elevated serum alkaline phosphatase levels also indicate poor prognosis.
Lung Cancer Survival Rates – What is a Cancer Survival Rate?
Every cancer has a five-year survival rate denoted by a percentage. How is this interpreted? A five-year survival rate actually shows the number of people out of 100 diagnosed with that particular cancer who can survive the disease for a minimum period of five years. It does not indicate the odds of any single person against the disease. So if a cancer has a five-year survival rate of say 80%, it means 80 out of 100 people having that cancer will make it five years after diagnosis, while 20 will succumb to it.
There are also other indicators like disease-free survival rate and progression-free survival rate that are often used in the study of cancers. Five-year survival rates help understand the prognosis of the disease, help develop and compare treatment plans and are useful while comparing outcomes in various treatment centres. But it has its limitations – it talks about a group of people with the disease and not about particular patients.
Lung Cancer Prognosis – Life Expectancy Stage-Wise
In the case of non-small cell lung cancer, the five-year survival rate for an early (stage 1) disease that can be removed by operation is between 60 and 70%. A late stage 4 disease has survival rates of less than 1%. As for small cell lung cancer, the overall prognosis is very poor, with a five-year survival rate of 20% for limited disease and less than 1% for late stages.
The main reason for poor lung cancer prognosis is that patients are often diagnosed in late stages with advanced disease. This is especially the case with the deadly small cell lung cancer as it is an aggressive disease and spreads rapidly. Once lung cancer spreads to other parts of the body, or causes metastases, it becomes extremely difficult to treat worsening the lung cancer survival rates.
Sources:
Minna, JD; Schiller JH Harrison's Principles of Internal Medicine (17th ed.). McGraw-Hill 2000 pp. 551–562. ISBN 0-07-146633-9.
Merck Manual Professional Edition, Online Edition, “Lung Carcinoma: Tumors of the Lung” Merck.com Accessed on 14 June 2010
Lakshmi Ananth - Lakshmi Ananth is a practising ENT, head and neck surgeon and has faculty position at a medical college. She is specially interested in ...
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