Lung cancer in 2014 remains one of the most illusive chronic diseases in existence. There are countless factors that contribute to its development and that determine whether or not it will do the body serious harm. In many cases, invasive surgery is necessary to remove cancer growths from the body in order to prevent its maturity and halt its spread to other organs or areas of the body.

One of the most common forms of cancer that requires surgery is lung cancer. When cancers occurs in the lungs it can be very volatile, spreading to other organs in close proximity very quickly. Surgery is necessary very early on to ensure that the cancer is relegated to the lungs and that the growths are removed.

These procedures are inpatient and require extensive recovery. A new study performed at the Winship Cancer Institute at Emory University shows that socioeconomic factors such as insurance coverage, level of education, and disposable income impact a patient’s survival after invasive lung cancer surgery. The interaction between socioeconomic status and health outcomes is always changing, but environmental stressors play a large role in chronic diseases like cancer.

The study found that there was a 10 percent increased risk of post-operation mortality for patients with the lowest standard deviation of education and income. Most startling was the 23 percent increased risk of post-operation mortality in uninsured patients. With close to 50 million uninsured Americans in our healthcare system, this is surely concerning for the future of cancer management in the United States.

It is important to note that while socioeconomic factors played a role in survival after surgery, the most important determinant of survival was the stage of the tumor in the patients’ lung. Patients with Stage I lung cancer had roughly a 60% chance of post-operation survival for at least five years. 40 percent of patients with Stage II lung cancer had a chance of post-operation survival for the same amount of time, with Stage III and Stage IV patients having a 31 percent and 20 percent increased chance of post-operation survival respectively.

Insurance coverage and disposable income are definite barriers to care due to the nature of where patients are able to seek care. Post-operation monitoring and benchmarking needs to be extensive and without the means to seek care in an institution that will be thorough in treating lung cancer, patients with low socioeconomic status will continue to struggle with chronic disease management and quality of life after cancer.