Lung Cancer Prognosis

Lung cancer prognosis means the chance for cure or prolongation of life (survival). Lung cancer prognosis is depends on upon where the cancer is located, the size of the cancer, the presence of symptoms, the type of lung cancer, and the overall health status of the patient. For patients with inoperable lung cancer, prognosis is adversely affected by poor performance status and weight loss of more than 10%.

Non-small cell lung cancer prognosis include:

• Presence or absence of pulmonary symptoms 
• Tumor location
• The size of tumor
• Lung cancer stage and metastasis to lymph node
• and the overall health status of the patient.

Non-small cell lung cancer prognosis is usually poor. Even after a complete surgical resection of stage 1A, the five year survival rate is about 67%. With stage IB disease, five-year survival is 57%. And the five year survival rate for non-small cell lung cancer stage 4 is about 1%.

Small cell lung cancer prognosis include:

• Performance status,
• Gender, 
• Stage of disease
• and involvement of the central nervous system or liver at the time of diagnosis.

The same with small cell lung cancer, the prognosis also poor. The overall five-year survival for patients is about 5%. Patients with extensive-stage small cell lung cancer have an average five-year survival rate of less than 1%. The median survival time for limited-stage disease is 20 months, with a five-year survival rate of 20%.

Main article: Treatment for Lung Cancer