What Causes Lung Cancer and What Are the Survival Rates?

In the 1950’s a clear link was established between smoking and the development of lung cancer but at that time cigarette manufacturers did everything possible to plat this down. One cigarette contains in excess of 4,000 chemicals, some of which are highly dangerous (carbon monoxide is just one example); many of these chemicals are linked to lung cancer.

Figures suggest that one pack of cigarettes a day increases the risk by as much as 20 or more times over someone who has never smoked.

In short it is simply best advice to quit smoking and if you don’t smoke don’t start. Today there are many non-smoking programs that are highly successful and the amount of money saved over a short space of time is enormous. Lungs also can heal quite fast. It is thought that after about 15 years from giving up the risk of getting lung cancer falls close to normal levels.

Although other forms of smoking, such as pipe or cigars also increase the risk but not as much as cigarettes.
Besides smoking cigarettes there are other things that increase the risk of lung cancer as indicated below:

Passive smoking – although difficult to analyze it is estimated that in the U.S over 3,000 deaths a year can be attributed to this.

Air pollution – the emissions from cars, factories and other polluting sources are estimated to increase the risk of lung cancer similar to that of passive smoking.

Asbestos – it is now known that exposure to asbestos increases the risk of lung cancer by up to nine times. Combine cigarette smoking and exposure to asbestos as the risk increases much more.

Lung diseases – research shows that illnesses such as tuberculosis (TB) and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) increase the incidence of lung cancer.

Radon – this is present in outdoor and indoor air and is thought to contribute to the incidence of lung cancer.

Lung Cancer Survival Rates

Real and accurate survival rates are hard to measure. They don’t take account of completed treatments or whether they are still on treatment. There is no mention of progression of the disease or whether they are in remission or cured.

A survival rate is measured by the number of people alive after a specified period of time. Taking a 5-year survival rate as an example, a rating of 15 means that 15 out of 100 people diagnosed would still be alive after 5 years.

When working on survival rates several factors influence the resultant rate:

General state health – those persons who are generally healthy in other respects are likely to have a better prognosis than a person with other illnesses.
Sex – there is a different survival rate between men and women. Women have a greater chance of survival than men.
The survival rate for women with lung cancer is higher than that for men at all stages of the disease.
Race – statistics show that survival rates are better depending on race. Black men and women have a lower survival rate than those that are white.

The overall survival rate is lower for black men and women than for white men and women.
Continued smoking after diagnosis – some people just cannot or will not quit. Naturally those that continue to smoke after diagnoses have a lower survival rate than those who quit.
individuals with early stage lung cancer that quit smoking may have a survival rate twice as high as those who were unable to quit.

Treatments used – tolerance to treatment affects survival rates.

Studies have shown that five-year survival rates among non-small cell lung cancer patients vary by stage with:
stage 0 patients having the best survival, of close to 50% at five years
approximately 25% of stage II patients survive to five years
approximately 8% of stage III patients survive to five years, and
about 2% of stage IV patients survive for five years.

Small cell lung cancer tends to proceed more rapidly to terminal disease. Ten to fifteen percent of patients with limited-stage small cell lung cancer, and between one and two percent of those with extensive-stage cancer, survive to five years.

Related posts:

  1. Overview Of The Types Of Lung Cancer
  2. Types Of Surgery Available To Treat Lung Cancer
  3. Overview Of Tests Used To Diagnose Lung Cancer
  4. Introduction To Minimally Invasive Lung Cancer Surgery
  5. Reasons To Consider Lung Surgery