INTRODUCTION: Cancer is a worldwide public health crisis. In Brazil there are 519,000 new cases of cancer in 2012-2013 and is the second cause of death. Lung cancer is one of the most common types. The aim of this study was to analyze the survival of patients with lung cancer treated in the Unified Health System. METHOD: Through pairing deterministic-probabilistic data were gathered oncology treatment provided by the Unified Health System in the same register, being created National Basis in Oncology. We performed a descriptive analysis and a survival analysis with SPSS® version 20, adopting a significance level of 5%. RESULTS: We analyzed 11,157 patients. Most of them (88.8%) were diagnosed and treated with advanced disease. The survival rate for lung cancer in less than 1 year was 45% and survival for lung cancer over 5 years was 16%. Discussion: The majority of patients were diagnosed in advanced stages and death from lung cancer was the most common outcome. CONCLUSION: Lung cancer is a serious disease, difficult to diagnose and difficult to treat, being prevention the best approach.
survival analysis; lung neoplasms; Brazil