A huge medical challenge
Although medical science has made progress in the understanding and treatment of the disease, lung cancer causes more than 1.3 million deaths a year worldwide and is the leading cause of cancer death in men. Every year, more people die worldwide from lung cancer than from breast, colon and prostrate cancers combined. While the number of new cases is stabilizing in the developed world, it is increasing in developing countries.
Lung cancer starts in cells that form the lung tissue, most often in those that line the airways. It can get into nearby tissue and spread throughout the body (the process called metastasis). Cancer that has spread to the lungs after starting in another part of the body is not the same as lung cancer.
Patients suffering from lung cancer may find benefit, support and help through a patient organization called the Lung Cancer Coalition and the Lung Cancer Alliance.
Two main types
There are two main types of lung cancer: Small Cell Lung Carcinoma (SCLC) and Non-Small Cell Lung Carcinoma (NSCLC).
- NSCLC accounts for 80 to 85% of all lung cancers and is mostly associated with smoking, though in up to 20% of cases no association is found. It groups 3 subtypes (called “squamous”, “adenocarcinoma” and “large cell” lung cancer) that are all treated in a similar way and show similar recovery levels.
- SCLC is less common than NSCLC, almost always associated with smoking and even more difficult to treat successfully.
Staging and Grading of Lung Cancer
Your doctor will make careful examinations in order to classify the lung cancer precisely, in terms of staging and grading,
- Staging of NSCLC measures the degree of spread (none, local or distant) and the size of the tumor. Staging ranges from IA (early cancer with a good chance of recovery) to IV (advanced cancer). SCLC on the other hand, is staged simply by “limited” or “extensive”.
- Grading is defined by cell appearance under the microscope. NSCLC subtypes tend to be less aggressive than SCLC cancer. SCLC appears “aggressive” under a microscope: the cells are small with large nuclei (the part of the cell that regulates the multiplication: no wonder SCLC cells replicate faster).
