Survival rates for lung cancer

The survival rate for men and women suffering from lung cancer varies greatly, but for the most part the survival rates of patients are tied closely to their cancer stage.  A person’s cancer stage is determined by how severe their cancer is and how far and where it has spread.  The less the cancer has spread the better chance for survival.  Keep in mind though, each case is different, and you are a person, not a statistic.  You decide your own fate.
Lung cancer is normally diagnosed in its later stages, so lung cancer is known to have one of the lowest five-year survival rates of all cancers.  3 out of 5 patients diagnosed with cancer die within the year.  This is not because lung cancer is more dangerous, but because lung cancer is much harder to detect in its early stages, so many people do not know they have lung cancer until Stage II or III, where the chances of survival greatly decrease.
Stage I lung cancer is when cancer has invaded the underlying lung tissue, but nothing else.  Stage I cancer, for the sake of survival rates, can be diagnosed either as A or B.  Stage IA is less severe than Stage IB.  Fifty percent of patients who are diagnosed with Stage IA lung cancer live longer than five years.  Fifty percent of patients diagnosed with Stage IB lung cancer will live for about three years.
Once the cancer has spread to either the lymph nodes or the chest wall, they have gone into Stage II of lung cancer.  If the cancer has just spread to the lymph nodes it is considered Stage IIA.  Fifty percent of patients will live for about two years after they are diagnosed.  If the cancer has spread from the lymph nodes to the chest wall, then it considered Stage IIB.  Fifty percent of these patients live for another year and a half after their diagnosis. 
A person has advanced to stage three once the cancer has spread to the center of the chest.  Stage IIIA lung cancer is if the cancer is just in the center of the chest.  Stage IIIB cancer is once it spreads into the heart, blood vessels, trachea, and/or the esophagus.  Fifty percent of patients with Stage IIIA lung cancer will live for approximately a year and a half, while fifty percent of patients with Stage IIIB lung cancer will only live for about a year. 
Stage IV lung cancer is normally not a person’s first diagnosis of lung cancer, but yet it could be.  Stage IV is once the lung cancer has spread to the liver, bones, brain, or all of the above.  Patients who are diagnosed with Stage IV lung cancer will live on average for 8 months.

       Survival rates also will vary by a person’s sex, age, health, and genetics.  The best person to talk to about your or your loved ones, chance of survival is your doctor.  They know the specifics of your disease, your health, your sex, your age, and know a little bit about your family history.  Also it is good to know that patients that go with lung cancer untreated after diagnosis generally only live about 3 to 4 months.