About Statistics, Prognosis and Survival Rates Some people
diagnosed with lung cancer want to know how long they are going
to live. Others don’t want to know but a doctor may offer an
estimate without being asked. It’s difficult to go online
without encountering prognosis and survival rates for lung
cancer but what do these terms mean? Prognosis refers to the
likely outcome, or forecast, of a disease. For cancer, it refers
to the chance of recovery or recurrence. The prognosis for lung
cancer is an estimate based on the course of the disease taken
from studying hundreds or thousands of people who have been
diagnosed. Survival rate is the percentage of people with a type
and stage of cancer who survive a specific period of time after
diagnosis. It is a common way in which prognosis is discussed.
In cancer, five year survival rates are often used. What does
this mean for you? While statistics can tell us many things
about prognosis and survival, it is not possible to predict how
long someone in treatment for th