Factors Affecting Lung Cancer Survival: A Literature Review

Lung cancer is a disease which invades the lung tissue by formation of uncontrolled cell growth, and this may also affect the tissues near the lung. There are a wide range of prognostic factors which determine survival duration of lung cancer patients. Among the most important factors are patient demographics, disease factors and health care related factors. Lung cancer remains one of the leading causes of the overall cancer burden worldwide. The aim of this review is to investigate the existing knowledge and relevant literature on prognostic factors in lung cancer survival. Literature search was carried on OVID databases (1990-2011) that include Ovid MEDLINE in process and EMBASE. In Ovid, truncations were used. Only papers published in English were included. A total of 315 were found and refined, only 43 papers were reviewed. In conclusion, lung cancer survival is influenced by a number of factors that interact to determine the prognosis of patients. Lung cancer survival is not dependent on a single factor of these prognostics, but is affected by the interaction between them.