prognosis

Last edited 11/2021 and last reviewed 03/2023

• the Office for National Statistics 2019 state that, of those patients diagnosed with lung cancer, the survival is 16.2% of people living beyond 5 years and 9.5% living beyond 10 years (1)

Presurgical TNM staging provides important prognostic information.

Small cell tumours carry the worst prognosis:

• untreated - 1-2 months median survival
• treated - 12 months median survival

Untreated median survival times for other tumours include:

• adenocarcinoma: 12 months
• squamous carcinoma: 8 months

Smoking cessation after diagnosis materially improved overall and progression-free survival among current smokers with early-stage lung cancer

• prospective Russian cohort study found higher overall survival time among patients who quit smoking vs continued smoking (6.6vs4.8yrs, respectively; P=0.001), 5-year overall survival (60.6%vs48.6%; P=0.001) and progression-free survival (54.4%vs43.8%; P=0.004)

Reference:

• Office for National Statistics Cancer Survival in England: adult, stage at diagnosis and childhood patients followed up to 2018, 2019. Available at: https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/healthandsocialcare/conditionsanddiseases/bulletins/cancersurvivalinengland/latest
• Mahdi Sheikh, Anush Mukeriya, Oxana Shangina, et al. Postdiagnosis Smoking Cessation and Reduced Risk for Lung Cancer Progression and Mortality: A Prospective Cohort Study. Ann Intern Med. [Epub ahead of print 27 July 2021]. doi:10.7326/M21-0252