Studies have shown that many environmental factors influence the probability of contracting lung cancer. As a result, doctors have concluded that genetics play a major role in determining whether or not patients contract the disease. With treatment, 14% of patients can have a 5 years survival rate, a high achievement in lung cancer terms.
It reported that current studies reveal that chemotherapy, after the traditional Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer treatment of surgery, can increase the survival rate among patients. The five-year survival rate for early non-small cell lung cancer is close to 50 percent; five-year survival drops to about two percent in the most advanced cases. More or less one-quarter of phase II patients make it to five years, as equated to 8 percent of phase III patients and just 2 percent of phase IV patients. This is especially important in small cell lung cancer, since it tends to spread more rapidly. In extensive-stage small cell lung cancer, the cancer has spread to other parts of the body.
Current treatments are not so effective in treating the disease where the average survival period is little as over one year. Estimates of median survival time range from one to two years; survival depends on underlying factors such as the type and extent of spread of the mesothelioma.
It is the most common cause of cancer deaths in both men and women, accounting for nearly a third of cancer deaths annually in the United States. Women smokers have 5 to 15 times greater risk than non-smoking women. But based on the preliminary results, it appears that regular lung cancer screening with chest x-rays may help at early detection and a better cure-rate for this disease.