Patients have higher chance of surviving lung cancer: Expert

GUANGZHOU -- Chinese patients diagnosed with lung cancer now have a higher chance of surviving the disease, thanks to improvements in precision medicine and targeted drug delivery, experts said Tuesday.

Statistics from more than 1,600 medical records of Guangdong Provincial People's Hospital show a 16 percent five-year survival rate for advanced lung cancer, according to Wu Yilong, lifetime director of the hospital and honorary director of the Guangdong Lung Cancer Institute.

This rate is several times higher than before, Wu added, noting doctors are able to select the treatments that are most likely to help their patients who suffer from lung cancer based on a genetic test.