Lung Transplant Can Prolong Survival in Stage IV NSCLC

MONDAY, July 13, 2026 (HealthDay News) — Lung transplantation can prolong survival for select patients with medically refractory, lung-limited, stage IV non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), according to a study published online July 8 in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Ankit Bharat, M.D., from the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago, and colleagues conducted a prospective, single-center, registry study (from Sep. 1, 2021, through June 30, 2025) to describe outcomes and compare survival among patients with medically refractory, lung-limited, stage IV NSCLC who underwent lung transplant compared to medical management alone. Ninety-eight patients with stage IV NSCLC were included: 17 underwent lung transplant and 81 received medical management alone. In addition, the study included 306 adults without cancer who underwent lung transplant for end-stage pulmonary disease.

The researchers found that the Kaplan-Meier estimated one-year survival was 100.0 and 40.8 percent, respectively, among the lung transplant recipients with NSCLC and those with NSCLC who received medical management alone (absolute difference, 59.2 percentage points). The one-year posttransplant survival was 100 and 88.1 percent, respectively, among patients with NSCLC and those without cancer (absolute difference, 11.9 percentage points). Two of the transplant recipients with stage IV NSCLC had died at the extended follow-up (Jan. 31, 2026).

“We are not saying lung transplant is appropriate for every patient with stage IV lung cancer,” Bharat said in a statement. “We are saying that when the cancer is rigorously proven to be confined to the lungs, when standard therapies have been exhausted, and when the lungs themselves have become the life-limiting organ, transplantation may offer a new path forward.”

Several authors disclosed ties to the biopharmaceutical industry.

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