Raleigh — Lung cancer is still one of the scariest diagnoses anyone in the Triangle can hear, but the numbers tell a story that would have sounded almost impossible a decade ago. Five-year survival for people diagnosed with lung cancer has climbed to roughly 30 percent, a jump that local oncologists and national reports link to immunotherapy, better testing and more people getting screened. Treatments that once bought patients a few extra months are now delivering durable, multi-year responses for a meaningful minority of people, and clinic conversations are shifting from crisis management to long-term planning and survivor follow-up.
National data back up what Triangle doctors say they are seeing exam room by exam room. According to the American Lung Association, the national five-year lung cancer survival rate is about 29.7 percent. The American Cancer Society Cancer Statistics 2026 review similarly tracks steady gains in survival and credits earlier detection plus newer therapies, especially immune checkpoint inhibitors, for much of the improvement.
Closer to home, Triangle Business Journal reported a similar 30 percent five-year figure for 2025 and noted that WakeMed sees roughly 200 to 300 new lung cancer patients each year. WakeMed clinicians and patient stories on the health system’s site describe a clear shift in routine care: genetic testing, targeted drugs and checkpoint inhibitors now sit alongside surgery and radiation as standard parts of many treatment plans.
Trial Results Show Durable Gains
Immune checkpoint inhibitors have delivered some of the most striking gains for people with advanced disease. Randomized trials that added PD-1 or PD-L1 inhibitors to traditional chemotherapy showed higher long-term survival than chemotherapy alone. One example often cited in clinic: the phase 3 KEYNOTE-189 five-year update reported a meaningful overall survival advantage for pembrolizumab plus chemotherapy in metastatic non-squamous non-small cell lung cancer, according to a J Clin Oncol report…