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Small-Cell Lung Cancer

Kimberly Crawford

Kaplan University

September 24, 2013

Small-Cell Lung Cancer

The literature review will examine small-cell lung cancer (SCLC) also referred to as oat cell carcinoma, which is a deadly disease that connected to tobacco smoking. It has been established that small lung cancer causes 10-18 percent of all the cancer cases. The cancer starts in the lungs and moves to the rest body very fast. The literature will emphasize the fact that the disease is not curable; nonetheless if correct treatment method is administered during the early stages of the disease the disease will be treated. Therefore, the literature review will examine the causes and methods used to treat the disease (Sørensen et al, 2010).

Sørensen et al (2010) argue that SCLC is more prevalent in men than in women, and in most instances the common form of SCLC to have symptoms called paraneoplatic syndrome-which is symptoms as a result of hormones secreted by a tumor or through body immune system of the body as a form of response to a tumor. Symptoms of this kind of cancer include coughing up blood, persistent cough, shortness of breath, swelling of the neck and face, wheezing and repeated episodes of bronchitis or pneumonia (Sørensen et al, 2010).

According to Capizzello et al (2011), SCLC develops rapidly; however, it responds well to chemotherapy because it tends to become more resistant to any treatment as it progresses. It starts in the large bronchi and spreads to the brain. Small-cell lung cancer gets its name because observed under a microscope is mostly filled with nucleus. The disease is divided into two categories namely extensive and limited. It has been confirmed that 60 to 70 percent of the people already suffers from extensive stage SCLC at the period when one is diagnosed. Of all the cancer, SCLC is the most aggressive type of lung cancer. Ismaili (2011) says that since this type of cancer normally metastasizes broadly very early on in the natural history of the tumor, and since almost all cases of the disease respond intensely to radiotherapy and /or ‘complete response , there have been no significant role of surgery of the disease since 1970s. However, in the recent research it has been established that surgical excision can be used to improve survival when administered at the early stages of the disease before chemotherapy (Capizzello et al, 2011).

Argiris and Murren (2001) say that since SCLC spreads very fast through the body, treatment must comprise cancer-killing drugs, which chemotherapy is taken orally or vaccinated into the body. In many cases, the chemotherapy drug etoposide sometimes called irinotecan is integrated with either carboplatin or cisplatin. Therefore, combination of radiation and chemotherapy treatment is administered to individuals with the disease, which has spread to the rest of the body. Nevertheless, this form of treatment only assists to relieve the symptoms but is not curable (Argiris and Murren, 2001).

According to Shepherd (2010), radiation therapy applies prevailing x-rays or other forms of radiation that kill cancer cells. This means that radiation may be used together with bchemotherapy if surgery proves to be ineffective. In most instances, small-cell lung cancer might have move to the brain and in cases where there is no indications of the disease in the brain. Thus, some patients having the disease, or who had good response in the first diagnosis might get radiation therapy in the brain. This method of treatment is referred to as prophylactic cranial radiation (PCI). It has established that surgical operation assists very few patients with the disease because the cancer has spread at the period of diagnosis. Surgery will be effective only when the tumor has not spread and if surgery should be performed, then radiation therapy or chemotherapy must be administered. The overall survival rate of people with SCLC is, despondently, only approximately 6 percent (Shepherd, 2010).

References

Argiris A and Murren JR .(2001). Staging and clinical prognostic factors for small-cell lung cancer. Cancer J 7 (5): 437–47.

Capizzello A, Peponi E, Simou N. (2011). Pure small cell carcinoma of the prostate: a case report and literature review. Case Rep Oncol 4 (1): 88–95. doi:10.1159/000324717.

Giaccone, G. (2012). Systemic treatment of non-small cell lung cancer. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Ismaili N (2011). A rare bladder cancer – small cell carcinoma: review and update. Orphanet Journal of Rare Diseases 6 (75).

Shepherd F.A. (2010). Surgery for limited stage small cell lung cancer: time to fish or cut bait. J Thorac Oncol 5 (2): 147–9.

Sørensen, M., E. Felip, and M. Pijls-Johannesma. (2010). Small-cell lung cancer: ESMO Clinical Practice Guidelines for diagnosis, treatment and follow-up. Annals of Oncology 21.Issue suppl 5: Pp. v120-v125. Print.