A new study finds more than half of patients with advanced lung cancer don’t get treatment.

A new study finds more than half of patients with advanced lung cancer don’t get treatment.

The report in JAMA Oncology analyzed a quarter-million Medicare patients with metastatic lung cancer over a 15-year period and found only 48 percent of them received life-extending treatments like chemotherapy.

One-third of them never even saw an oncologist.

The researchers cite a lack of screening, and a sense of hopelessness.

Dr. William Dahut with the American Cancer Society says, “We’ve seen a five-time improvement in overall survival for metastatic lung cancer patients but it’s only at ten percent. So while there’s been great improvement there, there’s still a long way to go.”