Lung Cancer Central

• According to experts, racial disparities exist in all areas of the lung cancer care continuum. A study presented at ASCO 2021 demonstrated that Black patients with advanced or metastatic non-small cell lung cancer are less likely to receive next-generation sequencing before first-line therapy compared with white patients.
• The most common cancer among patients with both COVID-19 and cancer is lung, making up 21% of cases. Patients with lung cancer and COVID-19 have the second highest rates of poor outcomes, including an overall death rate of 18%.
• Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is the most common form of lung cancer, accounting for approximately 84% of cases; followed by small cell lung cancer (SCLC), accounting for about 13% of cases.
• An estimated 135,720 people (72,500 men and 63,220 women) are expected to die of lung cancer in 2020.
• The 5-year relative survival rate of patients with lung and bronchus cancer (all stages combined) is 19%. For patients with localized cancer, the 5-year survival rate is 57%. The rate drops to 5% if the cancer has metastasized to distant sites.
• Accounting for nearly a quarter of all cancer deaths, lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death among both men and women nationwide. Every year, more people succumb to lung cancer than colon, breast and prostate cancers combined.
• From 1990 to 2017, the death rate from lung cancer has dropped by 51% in men. From 2002 to 2017, the death rate has dropped by 26% in women. These declining rates are partly attributed to reductions in smoking.
• Each year from 2013 to 2017, the rates of new lung cancer cases declined by 5% in men and 4% in women. These declining rates are due to people quitting smoking and advances in early detection and treatment.
• Developing and dying of lung cancer is more likely in black men and women than any other race or ethnicity.
• An estimated 228,820 new cases of lung cancer will be reported in 2020.
• The average age of patients at diagnosis is 70 years. Lung cancer is diagnosed in only a small number of people who are younger than 45 years.
• Never-smokers comprise up to 20% of patients who die of lung cancer in the United States every year.
• In high-risk patients, early detection of lung cancer through low-dose CT screening can reduce mortality by 14% to 20%.
• In the United States, more than 750 lung cancer clinical trials are either actively recruiting or plan to recruit patients in the near future.
• Excluding skin cancer, lung cancer is the second most common cancer diagnosed in both men and women in the United States, after prostate cancer and breast cancer, respectively.

References:

• American Cancer Society. Cancer Statistics Center: Lung and bronchus. https://cancerstatisticscenter.cancer.org/?_ga=2.162207035.643746324.1515599850-1827405589.1515599850#!/cancer-site/Lung%20and%20bronchus. Accessed April 14, 2020.
• American Cancer Society. Facts and figures 2020 reports largest one-year drop in cancer mortality. https://www.cancer.org/latest-news/facts-and-figures-2020.html. Accessed April 14, 2020.
• American Cancer Society. Key statistics for lung cancer. https://www.cancer.org/cancer/lung-cancer/about/key-statistics.html. Updated January 8, 2020. Accessed April 14, 2020.
• American Cancer Society. Lung cancer risks for non-smokers https://www.cancer.org/latest-news/why-lung-cancer-strikes-nonsmokers.html. Accessed April 14, 2020.
• American Lung Association. Lung cancer fact sheet. https://www.lung.org/lung-health-diseases/lung-disease-lookup/lung-cancer/resource-library/lung-cancer-fact-sheet. Accessed April 14, 2020.
• Bruno D, et al. Abstract 9005. Presented at: ASCO Annual Meeting (virtual meeting); June 4-8, 2021.
• Dai M, et al. Cancer Discov. 2020;doi:10.1158/2159-8290.CD-20-0422.
• U.S. National Library of Medicine. https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/results/map/click?map.x=291&map.y=308&recrs=ab&cond=Lung+Cancer&mapw=1419. Accessed April 14, 2020.