What is lung cancer?

Over the past year, approximately 10,000 people died from lung cancer in the Netherlands. Approximately 1 in 5 people with cancer will die from lung cancer. Lung cancer is often a process that takes years before resulting in symptoms that cause people to visit their GP.

The stage of lung cancer also says something about the size of the tumour and how much it has spread throughout the body. 4 stages are used to indicate the extent to which the lung cancer has spread.

• Stage I: the tumour is present in one lung
• Stage II: the tumour is present in one lung, but also in lymph nodes or tissue located near the lungs.
• Stage III: the tumour in the lung as metastasised to the larger lymph nodes and the chest cavity
• Stage IV: the tumour in the lung has also metastasised to other parts of the body (for example, the liver, bones, etc.)

People with lung cancer often have unnoticeable symptoms at the start of their illness, such as coughing and tiredness. Older people often think that these symptoms are age-related. This means patients often visit their GP too late and that the diagnosis of lung cancer also occurs (too) late.

The most common symptoms of lung cancer are:

• A persistent itchy cough that lasts for longer than 9 weeks
• A little bit of blood in coughed-up mucus
• Inflammation of the airways, which continues to persist even after antibiotics
• Increased mucus forming
• Shortness of breath
• Hoarseness without throat paid
• Chest pain
• Swelling in the face and neck.

These symptoms are often associated with a poor physical condition, including:

• Tiredness
• Weight loss without a clear reasons
• Loss of appetite

These symptoms are fairly general and can also be caused by something else. This means they do not necessarily point to lung cancer. Nonetheless, it is best to visit your GP if one or more of these symptoms continues to persist.

Yes, lung cancer can be treated but the chances of successful treatment are determined by the stage in which the lung cancer is detected. By the time that people go to their GP with symptoms, it appears that the lung cancer is already in a difficult to treat stage. As a result, only 17 of every 100 people who are diagnosed with lung cancer will still be alive after 5 years. However, there is a major difference between lung cancer that is detected at an early stage and lung cancer that is detected at a later stage. If lung cancer is detected in an early stage (stage I), approximately 60 in every 100 people will still be alive after 5 years. If lung cancer is detected in a late stage, when it has sometimes already spread across the whole body (stage IV), only 3 in every 100 people will still be alive after 5 years despite treatment.