What's the average life expectancy for someone diagnosed with lung cancer?

What's the average life expectancy for someone diagnosed with lung cancer?

Jay M. Lee (Surgical Director, Thoracic Oncology Program, UCLA) gives expert video advice on: How is lung cancer diagnosed?; What are some common non-surgical procedures used to diagnose lung cancer?; Can waiting for a lung cancer diagnosis cause a dangerous delay in treatment? and more...

The average life expectancy for somebody with lung cancer is variable, and it depends on the T and M staging for your lung cancer. Overall, for all stages combined, the overall life expectancy is about 13 %. So that's a very low figure, but if we look at some of the earlier stages, for instance stage 1A, these patients have a five year survival of anywhere between 60% to 80%. So it's a large spectrum; the prognosis depends very much on your disease stage.