Recent outcomes for patients with carcinoma of the lung

We undertook a retrospective study of all lung cancer patients diagnosed between 1978 to 1982 and seen at the University of California San Diego affiliated hospitals. There were 390 evaluable patients; the vast majority were men. Overall median survival was 8 months and was similar for all histologic types. Completely asymptomatic patients had a median survival of 20.1 months while symptomatic patients had a median survival of 5-8 months. Retrospective application of the new clinical staging system for lung cancer increased the survival distinction between clinical Stage I and Stage II disease. Median survival for small cell carcinoma of the lung was 10 months: 16.6 months for disease limited to the chest, and 5.8 months for metastatic disease. Median survival for Stage III nonsmall cell lung cancer patients was only 5 months. Only those asymptomatic patients with small lesions which were detected incidentally or by screening chest x-ray had any likelihood of long-term, disease-free survival with more than 60% alive two years after diagnosis. This study suggests that screening and early detection programs in existence during the period of observation were not effective in detecting early disease, and that no therapy of advanced diseases [Stages II through IV] was sufficiently efficacious to be considered standard.