Worldwide as well as in the US, lung cancer is the one of the most common malign diseases for both sexes and accounts for more deaths than colon, prostate and breast cancer put together. As far as women are concerned, contrary to popular belief, more women die of lung cancer than of breast cancer though breast cancer is indeed more frequent. The estimated numbers of annual new diagnosed cases of lung cancer has been about 210,000 out of which about 150,000 are cases expected to result in death. Lung cancer can be of two types: non-small cell lung cancer and small cell lung cancer, also known as oat cell lung cancer. The later one accounts for about 13% of all lung cancer cases after having accounted for up to 25% in the past.

Oat cell lung cancer is considered to be distinct from non-small cell lung cancer in that it has different clinical and biological characteristics. It can easily be recognized also by its much more aggressive behavior. This type of cancer grows and spreads faster to distant parts of the body but it is also very sensitive to chemotherapy and radiation therapy but is most of the time considered inoperable.



Oat cell lung cancer start in peribronchial locations and attack the bronchial submucosa and are associated with very fast metastasis usually spreading to the lymph nodes, liver, bones, and brain. Though it attacks your body much faster early diagnosis of oat cell lung cancer is still possible if you carefully monitor your health. The stage of the cancer remains the most important factor for deciding survival no matter the type of the cancer. Unfortunately about 65%-70% of the patients diagnosed with small cell lung cancer are diagnosed with disseminated advanced cancers. These are considered to be incurable and the median survival is only 6 weeks. A diagnosis of a localized tumor increases the survival duration to 12 months. These figures apply only to cases where the cancer is left untreated. However, intensive treatment with chemotherapy and radiotherapy can have a great impact on the cancer. If having been undergoing chemo and multimodality therapy, patients with a limited disease have a median survival duration of 20 months and a 2-year survival rate of 45%. The 5 year survival rate can also reach 20%. For patients diagnosed with extensive cancer the median survival duration drops to 12 months and the 2 year survival rate to 4,6%.



Symptoms can vary mostly depending on the stage and not so much on the type of cancer. Symptoms of oat small cell cancer can include fatigue, weight loss, cough, dyspnea, hemoptysis, hoarseness, dysphagia and wheeziness. Since it can metastize very quickly you might also experience symptoms from secondary tumors from other parts of the body. Brain metastasis can lead to neurological dysfunctions, bone metastasis to bone pain and liver metastasis to abdominal pain.