The mortality rate from lung cancer has dropped in recent decades—by 56% in men from 1990 to 2019 and by 32% in women from 2002 to 2019. In recent years, early detection and treatment improvements have helped boost the 3-year survival rate for lung cancer from 21% in 2004 to 31% in 2015 through 2017. The 5-year survival rate has increased by 6% for distant-stage lung cancer, 33% for a regional-stage disease, and 60% for localized disease. But it’s still the leading cause of cancer deaths. (American Cancer Society’s ACS)

The authors credit the decreased risk of death from cancer to a significant reduction in smoking over the years. “We’ve never seen such large declines before, and it’s because of a decline in lung cancer,” Siegel said in an interview.

The mortality rate from lung cancer has dropped in recent decades—by 56% in men from 1990 to 2019 and by 32% in women from 2002 to 2019. In recent years, early detection and treatment improvements have helped boost the 3-year survival rate for lung cancer from 21% in 2004 to 31% in 2015 through 2017. The 5-year survival rate has increased by 6% for distant-stage lung cancer, 33% for a regional-stage disease, and 60% for localized disease.

Moreover, localized lung cancer diagnoses rose to 28% in 2018 from 20% in 2013—the year that the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) initially endorsed low-dose computed tomography screening for the disease. The report also suggests an association between Medicaid expansion through the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and improvements in the stage of lung cancer at diagnosis and survival.

Although lung cancer’s mortality rate has fallen, the disease is still the leading cause of cancer deaths. The report indicated that the disease will cause about 350 deaths daily—more than the projected mortality for breast, pancreas, and prostate cancers combined. About 81% of lung cancer deaths this year will be attributable to cigarette smoking.

JAMA

In 2019, nearly 14 of every 100 U.S. adults aged 18 years or older (14.0%) currently* smoked cigarettes. This means an estimated 34.1 million adults in the United States currently smoke cigarettes^. More than 16 million Americans live with a smoking-related disease.

Cost is still an issue as well. According to a team of Penn State College of Medicine researchers, care for the 15 most prevalent types of cancer in the U.S. cost approximately $156.2 billion in 2018. The team also found that medication was the most significant expense and that medication expenses for breast, lung, lymphoma and colorectal cancers incurred the most costs.

The cost of multimodal treatment of mesothelioma (combination of surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation therapy) is comparable to lung cancer, which averages between $55,548 and $79,8181 during the initial six months of care, according to a January 2019 study published in Cancer Medicine.

It’s both good and bad news. Costs for cancer treatments are unsustainable for patients and insurers, but as long as many people still smoke, there will always be a market for them.