The National Cancer Institute reports that one- and two-year survival rates for patients with advanced lung cancer have increased slightly over the past twenty years.
"There has been some improvement, but it's quite minimal," says ACSH's Dr. Elizabeth Whelan. "This just emphasizes the seriousness of lung cancer. It's a disease is so severe that we're celebrating even very small improvements in survival rates."
Dr. Ross adds, "The good news is that as smoking rates continue to decline, the incidence of lung cancer will certainly follow suit. This far outweighs the minimal increment in survival rates noted in this report."