Prognosis
- prognosis for people with small-cell lung cancer is poor
Small cell lung cancer (SCLC) can be classified into limited stage (LS-SCLC; 30%) vs extensive stage (ES-SCLC; 70%) based on whether the disease can be treated within a radiation field that is typically confined to 1 hemithorax but may include contralateral mediastinal and supraclavicular nodes (1):
- three-year overall survival is approximately 56.5% for LS-SCLC and 17.6% for ES-SCLC (1)
Overall five-year survival rates for SCLC have increased from 4.9% (1983 through 1993) to 6.4% (2002 through 2012) (2).
Reference:
- Kim SY, Park HS, Chiang AC. Small Cell Lung Cancer: A Review. JAMA. 2025;333(21):1906–1917.
- Basumallik N, Agarwal M. Small Cell Lung Cancer. [Updated 2023 Jul 10]. In: StatPearls [Internet]. Treasure Island (FL): StatPearls Publishing; 2025 Jan-.
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