The UK has seen a significant increase in the number of operations carried out for the treatment of lung cancer and Dr Ian Woolhouse, senior clinical lead on the National Lung Cancer Audit said “These results are very impressive and should serve to reassure patients that lung cancer surgery is very safe.”

Mr Doug West, audit lead for the Society of Cardiothoracic Surgery in Great Britain & Ireland said “These excellent survival rates after lung cancer surgery will be very reassuring to patients and their families facing this common and serious form of cancer. Our challenge now is to continue increasing access to surgery, so that all suitable patients can benefit.”

But these statistics relate only to survival of the surgery itself and not the disease. Sadly, lung cancer survival rates are not very good, and improving early diagnosis is key because the outcome depends upon how advanced your cancer is when it is diagnosed. Staging lung cancer can help guide treatment.

Lung cancer stages

NHS Choices explains:

Different types of staging systems are used for different types of cancer. Below is an example of one common method of staging:

• stage 0 – indicates that the cancer is where it started (in situ) and hasn’t spread
• stage I – the cancer is small and hasn’t spread anywhere else
• stage II – the cancer has grown, but hasn’t spread
• stage III – the cancer is larger and may have spread to the surrounding tissues and/or the lymph nodes (part of the lymphatic system)
• stage IV – the cancer has spread from where it started to at least one other body organ; also known as “secondary” or “metastatic” cancer

Cancer grades

The grade of a cancer depends on what the cells look like under a microscope.

In general, a lower grade indicates a slower-growing cancer and a higher grade indicates a faster-growing one. The grading system that’s usually used is as follows:

• grade I – cancer cells that resemble normal cells and aren’t growing rapidly
• grade II – cancer cells that don’t look like normal cells and are growing faster than normal cells
• grade III – cancer cells that look abnormal and may grow or spread more aggressively

It should be remembered that lung cancer survival rates are statistics and no statistics can tell you what will happen to you. Not everyone with a particular stage of lung cancer has the same outcome.

How can we help?

Here at Graysons we recognise the devastating, and in some cases fatal, effect that a delayed diagnosis of cancer can have. We understand the importance of compensation to you as it can greatly improve quality of life for you and your family and provide the care and security that is needed.

If you would like to talk to a member of our specialist team then please contact us for a confidential and free discussion today.

You can read more about the failure to diagnose or the misdiagnosis of cancer on our web pages.