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Is Lung Cancer Curable?

Is Lung Cancer Curable?
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Published on July 8, 2025
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Yes, lung cancer can be curable — if it’s found early and responds well to treatment.

 Thanks to recent therapy advances, the lung cancer mortality rate has declined and survival rates have improved.

 Even metastatic (advanced) lung cancer may be curable, although that is rare.

Many factors influence the likelihood of a lung cancer cure or long-term survival, including the patient’s age, their cancer stage, and the type of treatment they receive.

Lung Cancer Stage

The stage represents the cancer’s size and how far it has spread.

 In general, the lower the stage, the greater the odds of long-term survival or a cure. Doctors use the stage to determine a patient’s prognosis (outlook).
Five-year relative survival compares a person with lung cancer’s likelihood of being alive in five years with that of someone without that cancer.

According to the American Cancer Society, these are the five-year relative survival rates for lung cancer.

Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC):

  • 65 percent when the cancer hasn’t spread outside of the lung (localized)
  • 37 percent when the cancer has spread from the lung to nearby structures or lymph nodes (regional)
  • 9 percent when the cancer has spread to distant lymph nodes or organs like the brain, bones, liver, or other lung

Small cell lung cancer (SCLC):

  • 30 percent when the cancer hasn’t spread outside of the lung (localized)
  • 18 percent when the cancer has spread from the lung to nearby structures or lymph nodes (regional)
  • 3 percent when the cancer has spread to distant lymph nodes or organs like the brain, bones, liver, or other lung
It’s important to note that staging numbers are based on research conducted in large groups of people.

 The stage can’t predict how long a specific person with lung cancer will live. Each person responds to treatment differently. Furthermore, those being diagnosed with NSCLC or SCLC today may fare better than what these numbers show. This is because these numbers are based on diagnoses from at least five years earlier, and new treatments may have improved since then.

Type of Lung Cancer

Curability and survival also depend on the type of lung cancer.

There are two main types: non-small cell lung cancer and small cell lung cancer. In general, small cell lung cancer has lower survival rates because it grows more quickly and has often spread to other parts of the body by the time it is diagnosed.

Non-small cell lung cancer has three main subtypes:

  • Adenocarcinoma
  • Squamous cell carcinoma
  • Large cell carcinoma
Survival for each type varies. For example, large cell carcinoma often grows faster than adenocarcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma.

Some types of NSCLC have gene mutations, called driver mutations, that help them grow.

 These mutations can be targeted with treatments. Doctors test for molecular drivers using tissue taken during a biopsy sample.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved treatments for lung cancers with the following driver mutations:

  • ALK
  • BRAF V600E
  • EGFR
  • HER2
  • KRAS G12C
  • MET exon 14 skipping
  • NTRK
  • RET
  • ROS1
Treatments have prolonged survival for people that have cancers with these drivers, but they still may not lead to a cure. “In many cases, the cancer will recur, because often resistance will develop to the targeted therapy,” says Roy Herbst, MD, PhD, chief of medical oncology and hematology at Yale Cancer Center. Resistance means that the cancer is able to withstand the medicine and no longer responds to it.

Overall Health

The likelihood of surviving lung cancer depends on not only how far the cancer has spread once it’s diagnosed but also on the person’s overall health.

 The healthier and stronger someone is, the better they’ll be able to cope with treatment. Adequate health is necessary to tolerate surgery, chemotherapy, and immunotherapy.

“If you’re someone who has lung cancer and you smoked, you might have emphysema or heart disease. Those are comorbidities that would make you less likely to be able to tolerate these therapies,” says Dr. Herbst.

Treatment Options

Treatment options and response to treatment depend on factors such as the type of lung cancer (NSCLC or SCLC), the stage, and the person’s health. They include:

  • Surgery to remove the part of the lung that contains cancer
  • Chemotherapy — medicine that kills cancer cells throughout the body
  • Radiation therapy — high-energy rays that destroy cancer cells
  • Targeted therapies — medicines like EGFR and ALK inhibitors that block proteins that help cancer cells grow
  • Immunotherapy — medicines like immune checkpoint inhibitors that help the immune system fight off cancer

Surgery to remove the lobe of the lung containing cancer (lobectomy) may offer the greatest likelihood of curing early stage cancers. But there’s still a chance that the tumor could return in the future, says Herbst.

Late-stage cancers are harder to cure, but treatments like immunotherapy and targeted therapy can relieve symptoms and help you feel better.

Deaths from lung cancer, especially NSCLC, have declined over the last few decades, thanks to new treatments and improved screening.

 Now patients are receiving immunotherapies and targeted therapies for molecular changes like EGFR and ALK as first-line treatments. This may be why the survival rate has improved by 26 percent in the last five years.

 Biomarker testing helps determine which treatment options will be most effective for a particular patient.

Doctors are learning how to target patients’ cancers more effectively. “We’re learning how to understand why patients are resistant — those who don’t respond to begin with, or those who become resistant during treatment. And in those cases, we are developing new therapies,” says Herbst.

For some, joining a clinical treatment trial may be an option worth considering. “I would encourage patients to seek clinical trials and look for immunotherapy or other approaches,” says Herbst. “We are making great progress, and it’s been very exciting in the last few years.”

Remission vs. Cure

Doctors use the terms “remission” and “cure” to describe the results of lung cancer treatment. What’s the difference between the two?

Remission is when there are no longer any visible signs of cancer.

 Blood tests, imaging scans, or other tests don’t show evidence of disease, but there is still a risk of the cancer recurring.
Typically, when the cancer has been in remission for five years or more, it is considered cured.

 The cancer is unlikely to come back again, and you no longer need treatment. Although some types of lung cancer can be cured, especially if they’re diagnosed at an early stage, doctors more often refer to them as being in remission.

The Takeaway

  • Many factors, such as age, health, cancer stage, and how your cancer is treated, will determine if your lung cancer can be cured.
  • Lung cancer survival varies based on the cancer type and stage, but the outlook is improving as new therapies are introduced.
  • A person who has been in remission — meaning there is no longer any evidence of disease — for five years or more is considered cured.

Resources We Trust

EDITORIAL SOURCES
Everyday Health follows strict sourcing guidelines to ensure the accuracy of its content, outlined in our editorial policy. We use only trustworthy sources, including peer-reviewed studies, board-certified medical experts, patients with lived experience, and information from top institutions.
Resources
  1. Lung Cancer. MD Anderson Cancer Center.
  2. Treatments Linked to Drop in Lung Cancer Deaths. National Institutes of Health. September 1, 2020.
  3. Metastatic Lung Cancer Treatment. UChicago Medicine.
  4. Torrente M et al. Clinical Factors Influencing Long-Term Survival in a Real-Life Cohort of Early Stage Non-Small-Cell Lung Cancer Patients in Spain . Frontiers in Oncology. February 23, 2023.
  5. Lung Cancer Staging. American Lung Association. June 2, 2025.
  6. Lung Cancer Survival Rates. American Cancer Society. January 29, 2024.
  7. Lung Cancer. Cleveland Clinic. October 31, 2022.
  8. What Are the Types of Lung Cancer? American Lung Association. September 17, 2024.
  9. Types of Lung Cancer. LUNGevity.
  10. Scientists Learn More About How Lung Cancer Becomes Resistant to Drugs. Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. October 28, 2021.
  11. Survival for Lung Cancer. Cancer Research UK. December 21, 2022.
  12. Treatment Choices for Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer, by Stage. American Cancer Society. October 29, 2024.
  13. Howlader N et al. The Effect of Advances in Lung-Cancer Treatment on Population Mortality. The New England Journal of Medicine. August 12, 2020.
  14. New Report: Lung Cancer Survival Rate Improves, But Gaps in Biomarker Testing and Lack of Screening Hinder Progress. American Lung Association. November 19, 2024.
  15. Remission in Cancer. Cleveland Clinic. February 6, 2025.
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Conor Steuer, MD

Medical Reviewer
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Conor E. Steuer, MD, is medical oncologist specializing in the care of aerodigestive cancers, mesothelioma, and thymic malignancies and an assistant professor in the department of hematology and medical oncology at the Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta. He joined the clinical staff at Emory's Winship Cancer Institute as a practicing physician in July 2015. He currently serves as chair of the Lung and Aerodigestive Malignancies Working Group and is a member of the Discovery and Developmental Therapeutics Research Program at Winship.

Dr. Steuer received his medical degree from the New York University School of Medicine in 2009. He completed his postdoctoral training as a fellow in the department of hematology and medical oncology at the Emory University School of Medicine, where he was chief fellow in his final year.

He has been active in research including in clinical trial development, database analyses, and investigation of molecular biomarkers. He is interested in investigating the molecular biology and genomics of thoracic and head and neck tumors in order to be able to further the care of these patient populations. Additionally, he has taken an interest in utilizing national databases to perform clinical outcomes research, as well as further investigate rare forms of thoracic cancers.

Steuer's work has been published in many leading journals, such as Cancer, the Journal of Thoracic Oncology, and Lung Cancer, and has been presented at multiple international conferences.

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Stephanie Watson

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Stephanie Watson is a freelance health writer who has contributed to WebMD, AARP.org, BabyCenter, Forbes Health, Fortune Well, Time, Self, Arthritis Today, Greatist, Healthgrades, and HealthCentral. Previously, she was the executive editor of Harvard Women’s Health Watch and Mount Sinai’s Focus on Healthy Aging. She has also written more than 30 young adult books on subjects ranging from celebrity biographies to brain injuries in football.
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