Objective To investigate the clinical features of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients with long-term survival and the related factors for treatment. Methods A retrospective analysis of clinical features, treatment factors, and survival was performed for 963 patients with pathologically confirmed stage Ⅳ NSCLC between January 2010 and December 2015 from Department of Thoracic Oncology, West China Hospital, Sichuan University. Results The median overall survival (OS) of the 963 patients was 20.8 months, and the 1-, 3-, 5-, and 7-year survival rates were 72.0%, 21.4%, 15.2%, and 4.8%, respectively. There were 81 patients in the long-term survival group (OS>60 months) and 882 in the non-long-term survival group (OS<60 months). Previous surgery, thoracic radiotherapy and epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) gene positive significantly increased the 5-year actual survival rate, reducing the risk of death by 62.0%, 58.8%, and 58.1%, respectively. Compared with the non-long-term survival group, more patients in the long-term survival group received two or more means of treatment including surgery, thoracic radiotherapy, and targeted therapy (28.4% vs. 11.6%, P<0.001) and more patients benefited from fourth- or further-line treatment (24.7%vs. 11.1%, P<0.001). Cox multivariate regression analysis indicated that performance status [hazard ratio (HR)=1.388, 95% confidence interval (CI) (1.199, 1.608), P<0.001] , N stage [HR=1.160, 95%CI (1.058, 1.272), P=0.002] , EGFR gene status [HR=0.588, 95%CI (0.469, 0.738), P<0.001] , previous surgery [HR=0.626, 95%CI (0.471, 0.832), P=0.001] , and thoracic radiotherapy [HR=0.592, 95%CI (0.480, 0.730), P<0.001] were independent prognostic factors of OS. Conclusions Good performance status, early N staging, EGFR mutation, previous surgery, and thoracic radiotherapy are important prognostic factors affecting the survival of advanced NSCLC patients. Long-term survival benefits from combined treatment and effective further-line therapies.