Improvement of survival for non-small cell lung cancer over time

Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is the main histological subtype of lung cancer, which is the leading cause of cancer death. It is unclear whether the improved survival seen at high-volume centers applies to the general population and, more importantly, whether the improvement in lung cancer survival was just a consequence of improved screening work. Data from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) registry was used to identify 405,580 patients with NSCLC diagnosed from 1988 to 2008. The patients were divided into four groups according to the year of diagnosis. Trends of clinical characteristics were analyzed to reflect the progress of screening work. Five-year relative survivals in various subgroups were compared. The results indicated that proportion of aged, advanced, and non-surgical patients increased, whereas patients with lymph node metastasis and high histology grade decreased. Improvements in all stages of NSCLC patients were demonstrated, with relatively more significant gains for patients with localized and regional disease. After potentially curative surgical resection, remarkable improvements were observed in both cohorts with time (surgical: 52.00%–63.00%; non-surgical: 6.10%–13.50%). Specifically, patients who underwent pneumonectomy, lobectomy/bilobectomy, and partial/wedge/segmental resection all presented better survival rates. Our SEER analysis demonstrated improvements among patients in all stages of NSCLC that were deemed attributable to improved therapy and medical care for NSCLC rather than improved screening work.