Fewer Cigarettes, Better Treatment: Lung Cancer now Less Deadly in the US

A new study, led by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and published in the New England Journal of Medicine, shows that recent advances in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) treatment have contributed to a sharp mortality drop in the United States in the recent years.

“The survival benefit for patients with non-small cell lung cancer treated with targeted therapies has been demonstrated in clinical trials, but this study highlights the impact of these treatments at the population level,” says Nadia Howlader, Ph.D., of NCI’s Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences, who led the study. “We can now see the impact of advances in lung cancer treatment on survival.”

Among men, mortality from NSCLC decreased 6.3% annually between 2013 and 2016. Scientists originally thought that lung cancer screening could explain the decreases in NSCLC mortality, but the rapid drop in deaths reflects instead both declines in incidence, due in large part to reductions in smoking, and improvement in treatment.