Survival in lung cancer. An analysis of the effects of age, sex, resectability, and histopathologic type.

Records of 6,686 patients with primary lung malignancies were retrieved from a tumor registry. Survival curves according to histopathologic type demonstrated that patients with anaplastic tumors have a lower cumulative survival than those with either squamous cell cancers or adenocarcinomas (p less than 0.001), but survival for the latter two histologic types is similar. Age at diagnosis influences survival, and women with squamous or anaplastic tumors have a better prognosis than men with the same cell types (p less than 0.001). Although selection for resection is strongly associated with lower early mortality, all patients alive 2 yr after diagnosis have a similar prognosis is regardless of initial resectability. Each survival curve shows a high early mortality and a lower late mortality, indicating that each group can be considered to consist of 2 subgroups with different risks of dying of lung cancer. A mathematical model is described that closely approximates the actuarial survival.