What is the probability of curing small cell lung cancer

It is well known that it takes a while to recover from an illness, but some diseases cannot be cured. We can only control the condition and prevent it from developing further. Small cell lung cancer is a very difficult disease to cure. As long as it is discovered early and actively cooperates with doctors to undergo chemotherapy, the patient's life can still be prolonged. So what is the probability of curing small cell lung cancer? Let's take a look at it together.

The clinical characteristics of small cell lung cancer are that the tumor cells have a short doubling time and progress rapidly, often accompanied by endocrine abnormalities or carcinoid syndrome. Small cell lung cancer is more sensitive to chemotherapy, and chemotherapy can be considered, but chemotherapy alone has great side effects, often causing vomiting, hair loss, anorexia, decreased immunity and other symptoms, and improving immunity. Strengthen physical fitness and prevent recurrence and metastasis. Small cell lung cancer is an undifferentiated cancer type of lung cancer, accounting for about 20 to 25 percent of lung cancer. Small cell lung cancer is divided into limited stage and extensive stage. Most small cell lung cancers are already in the extensive stage when diagnosed, and the limited stage accounts for up to one-third. It is derived from the malignant transformation of lung Kulchitsky cells, and WHO divides it into three types: oat cell type, intermediate cell type and mixed cell type. The disease is more common in men than in women; the site of onset is mostly large bronchial central type.

Most patients have rapid development of symptoms and disease, and die from tumor progression in a short period of time. The average median survival of untreated patients is 12 to 15 weeks, and the average median survival of advanced patients is 6 to 9 weeks. Finally, the tumor cells of small cell lung cancer SCLC are less differentiated and have a shorter doubling time, so they are very sensitive to chemotherapy and radiotherapy. In terms of treatment, chemotherapy combined with local radiotherapy is the main treatment. There are two effective combined chemotherapy regimens for small cell lung cancer. The total effective rate of these two treatment regimens in patients with limited stage is 75% to 90%, and the complete remission rate is 50%. The total effective rate of patients with extensive stage is about 75%, and the complete remission rate is usually 25%. Although the remission rate of the above two regimens is high, the median survival time is still 14 months and 7 to 9 months in patients with limited stage and extensive stage, respectively, and only a few patients survive for more than 2 years.

The role of chemotherapy in the treatment of small cell lung cancer, the combined treatment of chemotherapy plus thoracic radiotherapy for limited-stage small cell lung cancer There are many reports on chemotherapy plus thoracic radiotherapy for limited-stage patients. Due to the differences in chemotherapy regimens and the order of chemotherapy and radiotherapy, the reported results are contradictory. Two recent meta-analysis results confirmed the role of thoracic radiotherapy in limited-stage SCLC and the significant survival benefit of chemoradiotherapy compared with chemotherapy alone.

Small cell lung cancer is the fastest growing type of lung cancer cell and is extremely easy to spread and metastasize. However, whether it can be cured depends not only on the cell type, but also on how early it is discovered, whether surgery is possible, the patient's physical condition and mentality, economic conditions, etc. In general, if the treatment is active, it will take only 8 months for small cells to develop to death if it is not actively treated.