Esophageal Cancer

When To Call A Professional

If you experience any of symptoms of lung cancer, make an appointment to see your health care professional as soon as possible.

Prognosis

Squamous cell lung cancer usually is diagnosed after the disease has spread. The overall prognosis for squamous cell lung cancer and other non-small cell lung cancers is poor, with a five-year survival rate of about 16%. The survival rate is higher (closer to 50%) when cancers are detected and treated early. The five-year survival rate after surgery is approximately 47% for those with stage I disease. For those with more advanced, stage III disease, the five-year survival rate is approximately 8%.

Even when surgery and other therapies are initially successful, there is a high risk of cancer returning. This is because squamous cell lung cancer and other non-small cell lung cancers readily spread to other parts of the body.

Some recent exciting scientific discoveries about the mechanisms by which lung cancer grows may lead to better prognosis in the near future. Scientists are now able to understand the specific "signals" that a lung cancer cell receives that tells it to grow. By understanding these signals, some new types of drugs have been developed that may interfere or neutralize the signal. Thus, there are signals that tell the cancer cells to grow which can now be shut off, thus blocking the instructions to the cancer cells to grow.

Although the overall outcomes for patients with lung cancer are poor, this will hopefully change in the years to come as the understanding of cancer biology improves. In the meantime, the best single method to decrease the burden of lung cancer is to avoid ever smoking or stop immediately if you already smoke.

Additional Info

National Cancer Institute (NCI) U.S. National Institutes of Health Public Inquiries Office Building 31, Room 10A03 31 Center Drive, MSC 8322 Bethesda, MD 20892-2580 Phone: (301) 435-3848 Toll-Free: (800) 422-6237 TTY: (800) 332-8615 E-Mail: cancergovstaff@mail.nih.gov http://www.nci.nih.gov/

American Cancer Society (ACS) 1599 Clifton Road, NE Atlanta, GA 30329-4251 Toll-Free: (800) 227-2345 http://www.cancer.org/