Survival Rates for Lung Neuroendocrine Tumors

Survival rates are a way to measure how many people survive a certain type of cancer over time – usually 5 years. They cannot tell you exactly what will happen with any one person, but they may help give you a better understanding of how likely it is that treatment will be successful.

What is a 5-year relative survival rate?

A relative survival rate compares people with the same type and stage of lung neuroendocrine tumor (NET) to people in the overall population. For example, if the 5-year relative survival rate for a specific stage of lung NET is 90%, it means that people who have that cancer are, on average, about 90% as likely as people who don’t have that cancer to live for at least 5 years after being diagnosed.

Where do these numbers come from?

The American Cancer Society relies on information from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database, maintained by the National Cancer Institute (NCI), to provide survival statistics for different types of cancer.

The SEER database tracks 5-year relative survival rates for lung NETs in the United States based on how far the cancer has spread. The SEER database, however, does not group cancers by AJCC TNM stages  (stage 1, stage 2, stage 3, etc.). Instead, it groups cancers into localized, regional, and distant stages:

• Localized: There is no sign that the cancer has spread outside of the lung.
• Regional: The cancer has spread outside of the lung to nearby structures or lymph nodes.
• Distant: The cancer has spread to distant parts of the body such as the brain, liver, bones, or the other lung.

5-year relative survival rates for lung neuroendocrine tumors

These numbers are based on people diagnosed with lung NETs between 2015 and 2021.

SEER Stage	5-Year Relative Survival Rate
Localized	98%
Regional	87%
Distant	49%
All SEER stages combined	88%

 

These numbers include people with both typical and atypical NETs but survival rates would be expected to be better for typical NETs and not as good overall for atypical NETs. The vast majority of patients with typical NETs not involving lymph nodes are cured with surgery alone.

Understanding the numbers

These numbers apply only to the stage of the cancer when it is first diagnosed. They do not apply later on if the cancer grows, spreads, or comes back after treatment.

These numbers don’t take everything into account. Survival rates are grouped based on how far the cancer has spread. But your age, overall health, type of lung NET, its response to treatment, and other factors can also affect your outlook.

People now being diagnosed with lung NETs may have a better outlook than these numbers show. Treatments improve over time, and these numbers are based on people who were diagnosed and treated at least 5 years earlier.