What is Small Cell Lung Cancer(SCLC)?
About 15% of all lung cancers are of the small cell type. This cancer often starts in the bronchi near the center of the chest. Although the cancer cells are small, they can multiply quickly and form large tumors that can spread widely through the body. This means that the treatment must include drugs to kill the widespread disease. SCLC is almost always caused by smoking. It is very rare for someone who has never smoked to have small cell lung cancer. How Many People Get Small Cell Lung Cancer? Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death for both men and women. More people die of lung cancer than of colon, breast, and prostate cancers combined. Lung cancer is fairly rare in people under the age of 40. In 2008, there will be about 215,020 new cases of lung cancer (both small cell and non-small cell) in the United States and about 161,840 people will die from it. The average lifetime chance that a man will develop lung cancer is 1 in 13. For a woman it is 1 in 16. About 4 out of 10
There are two types of lung cancer; small cell lung cancer (SCLC) and non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). SCLC is believed to account for around 20% of all lung cancer diagnosis. This type of cancer develops when the small cells of the lung start to grow in a rapid and uncontrolled way. Eventually this leads to the formation of a malignant (cancerous) tumour in these cells. SCLC is often referred to as oat cell carcinoma because the small cells of the lung look similar to oats. In this article I will be discussing SCLC in greater detail. There are actually three types of SCLC cancer. In each type the cancer cells grow and spread in different ways. Below I will be discussing the three types in greater detail: 1) SMALL CELL CARCINOMA:- This is the most common form of SCLC representing around 95% of all cases. This name is given when the cancer only affects the small cells of the lung. 2) MIXED SMALL CELL/LARGE CELL CARCINOMA:- This is a less common sub-type of SCLC accounting for 4%-6% o
