Scientists have discovered a new cancer treatment that outranks all others - marriage.

Married patients with advanced lung cancer are likely to survive longer after treatment than patients who are single, according to a study by the University of Maryland Marlene and Stewart Greenebaum Cancer Center in Baltimore. Similar benefits have been seen in other cancers, including those of the prostate, and head and neck.

The researchers studied 168 patients with Stage III non-small cell lung cancer, the most common type of lung cancer, who were treated with chemotherapy and radiation over a 10-year-period.

They found that 33% of married patients were still alive after three years compared to 10% of the single patients, with women faring better than men. Married women had the best three-year survival rate (46%) against 3% in single men.

“Marital status appears to be an important independent predictor of survival in patients with locally advanced non-small cell lung cancer,” said the study’s lead author, Elizabeth Nichols.

“The reason for this is unclear” Nichols said in a statement.

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