The Mayo researchers have followed the patients from two to almost 10 years, and 43 percent have been spared surgery. Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related death in men and women in the United States. The American Cancer Society estimates about 94,400 men and 66,000 women will die of the disease in 1997. The cancer cells in each type grow and spread differently and are treated in different ways. Non-small cell lung cancer is more common and is usually associated with smoking, passive smoking or radon exposure.
Squamous cell is one of three kinds of non-small cell lung cancer.
The five-year survival rate for all stages of lung cancer is 14 percent, according to the American Cancer Society. Five-year survival for all early stages, which are found and treated before spreading to lymph nodes or other organs, is 48 percent. Unfortunately, only 15 percent of lung cancers are found in the early, localized stage. A chest X-ray can detect small cancers in the lung, but the test is not used as a routine screening tool. That's because studies in the early 1980s found no decrease in mortality in patients who were diagnosed when their cancers were small, Cortese said.