Thanks to successful anti-smoking campaigns, the rate of new lung cancer diagnoses has been falling.
Verywell / Ellen Lindner
How Common Is Lung Cancer?
Similarly, for females, only breast cancer is more common.
Verywell / Ellen Lindner
The NCI estimates an annual lung cancer death rate of around 125,000 people.
Lung cancer kills 350 people per day.
What Is the Lifetime Risk of Lung Cancer?
Around 81% of lung cancer deaths are due to smoking.
Lung and bronchus cancer is more common in males than females.
About 1 in 16 males and 1 in 17 females will eventually develop lung cancer.
This dichotomy is strong in Black Americans.
Black males have the highest lung cancer ratesabout 12% aremore likelyto develop lung cancer than White males.
Statistics by Age
Cancer is generally more prevalent in older people than younger.
This age-specificity is especially true for lung and bronchus cancer.
Your risk of developing cancer due to smoking increases with how manypack-yearsa person has smoked.
Most people diagnosed with lung cancer are over 65.
Pack-years are the number of years of smoking a pack a day.
If you smoke half a pack a day for five years, you have 2.5 pack years.
But if you smoke 1.5 packs a day for five years, thats 7.5 pack-years.
The longer a smoker lives, the longer theyve likely smoked and the more pack years theyve accumulated.
Smoking was also more common decades ago.
Cancers are just generally more common the older a patient gets.
Cells accumulate more cancer-causing genetic mutations, and the bodys defense systems deteriorate.
About 81% of lung cancer deaths are due to smoking.
For every 100,000 people in the United States, about 30 die from lung cancer each year.
What Are Survival Rates?
In other words, about 73.3% die from lung cancer within five years.
Many of those deaths occur relatively soon after diagnosis.
Less than half of people with lung cancer die within one year of diagnosis.
Not surprisingly, younger people have an advantage when it comes to survival.
In people under 50, survival rates are 38.8% (at five years).
In people 50 to 64, five-year survival rates are about 28.8%.
For people 65 or older, this drops to 25.1%.
Survival rates also vary based on how much thecancer has spreadin the body when you are diagnosed.
For people whose cancer hasnt left the lung, survival rates are higher.
More than 50% might be alive five years after diagnosis.
However, the amount of spread through the body is a much more important factor.
The survival rate for lung cancer has improved a bit.
People at high risk get scanned every year to look for new changes in the lungs.
These changes in the lungs dont always mean cancer.
Studies found the vast majority (94%to 98.5%) of these nodules are not cancerous.
These studies found screening can help detect cancer atan earlier stage, when it is more treatable.
Summary
Lung cancer is a common cancer that affects around 235,000 people a year.
There are around 600,000 people in America living with lung cancer.
This cancer is more common in males, especially Black males.
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