Abstract: Objective To explore the prognostic factors for female non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients. Methods Clinical data of 326 cases of female NSCLC patients were retrospectively analyzed. Follow-up survival period was from December 2006 to January 2013. Kaplan-Meier was applied to plot survival curves. Univariate and multivariate effects were measured by Cox proportional hazard regression. Results Five-year survival rates of female adenocarcinoma and squamous carcinoma patients were 28.9% and 19.3%(P＜0.0001), respectively. Five-year survival rates of N2, N1, N0 were 4.1%, 23.8% and 66.1%(P＜0.0001), respectively. Five-year survival rates of patients with or without pleural effusion before treatment were 6.8% and 38.4% (P＜0.0001), respectively. Conclusion Histological type, N stage and pleural effusion before treatment are the independent prognostic factors for female NSCLC patients.