Life Expectancy

Life expectancy with lung cancer can vary depending on many factors, including age, health, and staging.

Life expectancy with lung cancer depends on many things. It depends on how healthy you are when you get lung cancer, how old you are when you get lung cancer, the "grade" of the lung cancer and the "stage" of the lung cancer. Some factors are more important than others.

Normal women have a life expectancy of about 81 years. Normal men have a life expectancy of about 76 years. If you have lung cancer, your life expectancy will probably be lower than that and depends on the facts around your cancer. Smoking is a big cause of lung cancer so if you stop smoking, your life expectancy will go up to normal after your lungs have healed 10-15 years.

Smoking has decreased in men lately so their life expectancy is expected to go up in the next several years. Women are smoking in greater numbers so their life expectancy is expected to go down. Women will have more lung cancer than before.

Life Expectancy, Lung Cancer and Your Health

Lung cancer deaths depend on a number of factors. One of them is your overall health at the time of getting lung cancer. If you are healthy when you get lung cancer and if you are young, your survival rates from lung cancer are better. If you are older or are in poor health, you have a greater chance of dying from lung cancer.

The survival rates from lung cancer depend on the grade of the cancer. The grade of a lung cancer is how "angry" the cancer is. This is how fast the cancer cells are growing and spreading in the body. High grade lung cancer is worse than low grade lung cancer. When it comes to life expectancy and lung cancer, the lower grades are better.

Eating a healthy diet before and after having lung cancer can affect your survival rates from cancer. If you eat a lot of fruits and vegetables, you are eating many antioxidants which help fight cancer cells.

The life expectancy depends on the type of lung cancer. Small cell cancer of the lung has a very low life expectancy. Mesothelioma and squamous cell cancer of the lung have a better life expectancy.

The survival rates from lung cancer depend on whether the cancer has come back or whether the cancer is a new cancer. Cancers that come back tend to have a higher grade than cancers that are new.

Life Expectancy, Lung Cancer and Staging of Lung Cancer

Lung cancer stages tell you how far the cancer has spread. High grade lung cancer spreads faster than low grade lung cancer. The five year survival rate tells us what percentage of people are alive after five years having lung cancer.

The five year survival rate of local cancer (stage 1) is 49 percent. The five year survival rate of stage 2 cancer is about 20 percent and for stage 3 cancers, it is 10-15 percent. The five year survival rate for stage 4 cancer is only 2 percent. For cancers that have not been staged, the survival rate is about 8 percent.

Life expectancy and lung cancer depend on a person’s race and gender. Whites have a three percent better chance of surviving lung cancer than blacks. Women have a four percent better chance of surviving lung cancer than men.

The problem is that lung cancer isn’t always found in the early stages. Only 16 percent are found at stage 1. A total of 37 percent are found at stage 2 or 3, when the cancer has spread to lymph nodes or to other areas of the lung. A total of 39 percent of lung cancers are discovered when the cancer has spread to other body areas (stage 4).

Lung cancer is a difficult disease to recover from. The survival rates for lung cancer are not very good.

Written by Dr. Christine Traxler
06/20/09
Reviewed by Susan McCracken
06/27/09