U.S. Cancer Statistics Lung Cancer Stat Bite

In the United States in 2019—

• 221,097 new lung cancers were reported.
• 139,601 people died from lung cancer.

Males had higher rates of getting and dying from lung cancer than females.

Stage Distribution

From 2015 to 2019, nearly half of all lung cancers were diagnosed at a distant stage, meaning the cancer had spread from the lungs to distant parts of the body. About one-fourth of lung cancers were found at a localized stage (the cancer had not spread outside the lungs) or regional stage (the cancer had spread from the lungs to nearby lymph nodes, tissues, or organs).

5-Year Relative Survival

24% of lung cancer patients who were diagnosed from 2012 to 2018 had not died from their cancer 5 years later.

Most lung cancers are found after the cancer has spread to other parts of the body, when survival is lowest. Lung cancer screening can find cancer earlier, when treatment works better. Lung cancer screening is recommended only for people who are at high risk because of their smoking history and age.

Data Sources

Data are from U.S. Cancer Statistics, the official federal cancer statistics.

U.S. Cancer Statistics incidence data are from population-based registries that participate in CDC’s National Program of Cancer Registries (NPCR), the National Cancer Institute’s Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) Program, or both programs and met high-quality data criteria for the 2021 data submission, covering 99% of the U.S. population.

U.S. Cancer Statistics death data are from CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics National Vital Statistics System and cover 100% of the U.S. population.

U.S. Cancer Statistics survival and prevalence data are from 42 NPCR registries that met high-quality data criteria for the 2021 data submission and linked to the National Death Index, conducted active patient follow-up, or performed both of these activities. The resulting data cover 88% of the U.S. population. Five-year relative survival estimates are based on cases diagnosed from 2012 to 2018. Five-year limited-duration prevalence estimates are based on cases diagnosed from 2014 to 2018.