Lung Cancer Treatment & Prognosis

The prognosis for patients with lung cancer depends on the stage and type of the cancer, whether the cancer has metastasized and what type of treatment is used. Treatment methods for lung cancer can be used together, especially if the lung cancer has metastasized into other parts of the body. Lung cancer treatments include surgery, radiation therapy, chemotherapy and comfort care.

Staging

• Oncologists use staging as a way to describe the size and advancement of cancer. Stage 1 indicates individual tumors in the lungs. Stages up to stage 4 cancers indicate a spread of the tumors to multiple sites in the body.

Stage 1

• Surgical removal of a small part of the lung may be used at early stages (stage 1a and 1b) of lung cancer, and up to 40 percent of patients survive for at least five years.

Stage 2

• Surgical removal of a lobe of the lung or the entire lung is done on stage 2 cancers, and 50 percent of patients survive at least two years after this treatment.

Stage 3a

• Stage 3 cancers have metastasized and require radiation therapy or chemotherapy in combination with surgery, and according to the Oncology Channel, 50 percent of patients survive at least 15 months after treatment.

Stage 3b

• People with stage 3b lung cancer are not candidates for surgical removal of the cancer and are given a combination of chemotherapy and radiation, with 50 percent of patients surviving for at least 12 months.

Stage 4

• Stage 4 cancer or recurrent lung cancer may be treatable with chemotherapy to reduce symptoms, but no other treatments are considered effective; 50 percent of patients survive for at least eight months after treatment.

Comfort Care

• Comfort care uses measures such as pain relief and nutrition to reduce the symptoms of lung cancer, and 50 percent of patients survive for at least eight months while on comfort care-only treatment.