Our study suggests that among diagnosed respiratory cancer cases, those living in a heavily-polluted area had significantly shorter survival times compared to those living in a less- polluted area. Further, based on the analysis of individual exposure assignment, we also found that exposure to air pollutants including PM10, PM2.5 and O3 had adverse effects on the length of respiratory cancer survival. To our know- ledge, this study is the first and largest population-based study to investigate long-term effects of air pollution on re- spiratory cancer survival. Our study raised concerns that air pollution exposure may have a great impact on the length of survival for respiratory cancer patients. More im- portantly, this study also brings attention to the need for preventive efforts to protect cancer patients from air pollu- tion, which is currently overlooked in cancer patient care.