Just live and know they've got lots of therapies these days.. I've had 3 surgeries, chemo, and tagrisso for 27 months. March was my 9 year cancer anniversary.

A lot of people on here are still around over 5 years after diagnosis...

Don't go by the survival rates! It's just a guess. They don't know every individual with lung cancer, we are all different!

Expected length of survival depends on the stage and type of LC. And like so many said above, we are all different. Other factors are age and if there are any co-morbidities like heart disease and such.

I remember when I was diagnosed 24 years ago I read the same crummy stats. But I was only 46 years old and felt fine. So I starting looking at the survival curves for lung cancer.

Here's how I thought about it. Suppose 100 people were diagnosed with LC on the same day and I was one of them. The stats said that for my stage, 50 would survive one year, and of those 40 would survive to 2 years, and of those 30 would make it to the 3rd year, and of those 25 would make it to 4 years and of those 20 would make to 5 years. I wondered, would I be one of those lucky 20?

So when I made it to the one year mark, I recalculated my chances of making it to 5 years. There were now only 50 people left in my cohort. My chances of being one of the lucky 20 to live 5 years was now 20/50 or 40%. Still I felt fine. I was pretty sure I could live another year at least.

At the end of my second year, there were only 40 people left in my cohort. I was one of them. My chances of being one of the lucky 20 to survive to year 5 was now 20/40 or 50%. And I was still feeling fine. I knew I could live at least one more year.

At the end of my third year, there were only 30 still alive in my cohort. I was one of them. So my chances of being one of the lucky 20 to make it to year 5 was now 20/30=67%. I still felt great. I knew I could make it one more year.

At the end of my 4th year, there were only 25 remaining in my cohort and I was one of them. My chances of being one of the lucky 20 to make it to 5 years was now a whooping 20/25 or 80%.

So you see how the longer you survive, the better your chances become of being one of the lucky ones who survive this crummy disease. You just have to live one more year and your odds keep improving....until like me you hit age 70 or so. Then old age hits the other parts of the body start to wear out. :-)

Starting in Feb. 2023 They told me I have Lung Cancer Stage 3. with a survival rate of 5 years. Sounds good but I will not necessarily run with it...I have been in remission since June 2023 just finishing my 1 year plus of Immune Therapy this month... It all depends on the patient's health, attitude, and lifestyle. I am a fighter, keeping informed, and staying positive most days. Yes, most days...Taking walks every day helps a lot too.