Small cell lung cancer (SCLC) is a fast-growing type
of lung cancer. It spreads much more quickly than non-small cell lung cancer.
There are two different types of SCLC:
Small cell carcinoma (oat cell cancer)
Combined small cell carcinoma
Most SCLCs are of the oat cell type.
Causes, incidence, and risk factors
About 15% of all lung cancer cases are SCLC. Small
cell lung cancer is slightly more common in men than women.
Almost all cases of SCLC are due to cigarette
smoking. SCLC is rare in people who have never smoked.
SCLC is the most aggressive form of lung cancer. It
usually starts in the breathing tubes (bronchi) in the center of the chest.
Although the cancer cells are small, they grow very quickly and create large
tumors. These tumors often spread rapidly (metastasize) to other parts of the
body, including the brain, liver, and bone.
Symptoms
- Bloody sputum (phlegm)
- Chest pain
- Cough
- Loss of appetite
- Shortness of breath
- Weight loss
- Wheezing
Other symptoms that may occur with this disease:
- Facial swelling
- Fever
- Hoarseness or changing voice
- Swallowing difficulty
- Weakness
Signs and tests
Your health care provider will perform a physical
exam and ask questions about your medical history. You will be asked whether
you smoke, and if so, how much and for how long you have smoked.
When listening to your chest with a stethoscope,
your health care provider can sometimes hear fluid around the lungs or areas
where the lung has partially collapsed. Each of these findings could (but does
not always) suggest cancer.
SCLC has usually spread to other parts of your body
by the time it is diagnosed.
Tests that may be performed include:
- Bone scan
- Chest x-ray
- Complete blood count (CBC)
- CT scan
- Liver function tests
- MRI
- Positron emission tomography (PET) scan
- Sputum test (cytology, looking for cancer cells)
- Thoracentesis (removal of fluid from the chest cavity around the lungs)
In most cases, your health care provider may need to
remove a piece of tissue from your lungs or other areas to be examined under a
microscope. This is called a biopsy.
There are several ways to do a biopsy:
- Bronchoscopy combined with biopsy
- CT scan-directed needle biopsy
- Endoscopic esophageal ultrasound (EUS) with biopsy
- Mediastinoscopy with biopsy
- Open lung biopsy
- Pleural biopsy
- Video-assisted thoracoscopy
Usually if a biopsy shows cancer, more imaging tests
are done to find out the stage of the cancer. (Stage means how big the tumor is
and how far it has spread.) SCLC is classified as either:
- Limited (cancer is only in the chest and can be treated with radiation therapy)
- Extensive (cancer has spread outside the chest)
Treatment
Because SCLC spreads quickly throughout the body,
treatment must include cancer-killing drugs (chemotherapy) taken by mouth or
injected into the body. Usually, the chemotherapy drug etoposide (or sometimes
irinotecan) is combined with either cisplatin or carboplatin.
Combination chemotherapy and radiation treatment is
given to people with SCLC that has spread throughout the body. However, the
treatment only helps relieve symptoms. It does not cure the disease.
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Radiation therapy uses powerful x-rays or other
forms of radiation to kill cancer cells. Radiation therapy can be used with
chemotherapy if surgery is not possible.
Radiation may be used to:
- Treat the cancer, along with chemotherapy, if surgery is not possible
- Help relieve symptoms caused by the cancer, such as breathing problems and swelling
- Help relieve cancer pain when the cancer has spread to the bones
Often, SCLC may have already spread to the brain,
even when there are no symptoms or other signs of cancer in the brain. As a
result, some patients with smaller cancers, or who had a good response in their
first round of chemotherapy may receive radiation therapy to the brain. This
method is called prophylactic cranial irradiation (PCI).
Surgery helps very few patients with SCLC because
the disease has often spread by the time it is diagnosed. Surgery may be done
when there is only one tumor that has not spread. If surgery is done,
chemotherapy or radiation therapy will still be needed.
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