Stage Wise Non Small Cell Prognosis

Patient survival rates are quite low in non-small cell lung cancer inspite of the best available treatment being provided. Doctors therefore use research-based statistics such as the percentage 5-year survival rate to define non small cell prognosis. Such statistics only indicate that a certain percentage of the patients as found by a specific research study were alive after five years.

Prognosis is the long term outlook of the status of a disease and the course it will take after treatment is provided to patients of that disease. It is the life expectancy rate defined in terms of the statistics-based percentage of patients of that disease.

Of the two major types of lung cancer, non small cell lung cancer life expectancy figures are much better than those found for small cell.

The prognosis of non-small cell lung cancer depends mainly on the stage of the disease in which the diagnosis was made and treatment provided thereafter. There are 4 main progressive stages in the disease. The stage-wise prognosis of non-small cell lung cancer is described below.

Stage 1: If non-small cell lung cancer is diagnosed in this stage and surgical treatment to remove the primary tumor performed, the prognosis is the best comparatively. Unfortunately, it is very rare for patients to be diagnosed so early. Stage 1 is divided into stage-IA and stage-IB. The prognosis of patients diagnosed in stage-IA is approximately 80% (5-year survival rate). The prognosis for patients diagnosed in stage-IB is approximately 60% (5-year survival rate).

Stage II: The prognosis of non-small cell lung cancer patients diagnosed in stage II after surgical treatment is only in the 40% to 50% range (5-year survival rate).

Stage III: As the disease progresses to advanced stages, the prognosis becomes bleaker. Especially in stage II the type of treatment provided has a pronounced effect on the prognosis. Further, the treatment that can be provided depends on the spread of cancer in the body and the condition of patients.

In patients who can have surgery to remove non-small cell cancer in stage III, the prognosis is 25% to 30% (5-year survival rate). In stage III, if the cancer has spread to the lymph nodes of the chest, chemotherapy and radiotherapy are the methods of treatment provided. If solely radiotherapy is provided the prognosis is 5% to 10% (5-year survival rate).

If a combination of chemotherapy and radiotherapy is administered to non-small cell lung cancer patients, diagnosed in stage-III, the prognosis improves slightly to 7% to 10% on the same basis.

Stage IV: This is the most advanced stage. The prognosis is the lowest, about only 2% after five years.

The only consolation is that non small cell prognosis is much better than small cell prognosis. For the latter it is so bad that doctors use the 1-year survival rate to define the prognosis.

Lung Cancer