Small cell lung cancer or small cell lung carcinoma (SCLC), also known as the oat cell carcinoma, is less common. It usually originates in larger airways and rapidly grows allowing it to become large. This lung cancer type is strongly associated with smoking. It tends to start in the primary and secondary bronchi (larger airways) and grows quickly, becoming enlarged. The “oat” cell has dense vesicles containing neuroendocrine hormones (neurosecretory granules) that give it an endocrine or paraneoplastic syndrome association. Small cell lung carcinoma initially responds to chemotherapy but carries a worse prognosis. Often, it is of metastatic presentation.
The most effective small cell lung cancer treatment is chemotherapy. Chemotherapy is the treatment of disease with the use of chemicals. Such chemicals for medication kill cells, good and bad, but are targeted to micro-organisms or cancerous tumors. Popularly, chemotherapy refers to the use of antineoplastic drugs or a combination of these drugs into a cytotoxic standardized treatment regimen. It acts by killing cells that multiply rapidly.
Rapid division of cells is one of the main properties of cancer cells. Therefore, chemotherapy also harms cells that divide rapidly under normal conditions such as cells in the bone marrow, digestive tract, and hair follicles. The result of such destruction of healthy cells is myelosupplression or decrease production of blood cells which is a common side effect of chemotherapy. Such destruction also leads to mucositis or inflammation of the lining of the digestive tract or alopecia or hair loss.
Chemotherapy may also be used in combination with radiation therapy. Radiation therapy involves use of high-dose x-rays or other high energy rays to kill cancer cells. It is also called radiotherapy or radiation oncology and is sometimes abbreviated to XRT. Ionizing radiation may be a part of cancer treatment to control malignant cells. Radiotherapy may be geared towards curative or adjuvant cancer treatment. When cure is not possible and the aim is to control local disease or to relieve symptoms, it is used as palliative treatment. Radiotherapy as a therapeutic treatment when there’s a survival benefit associated with it and can be performed towards cure. Total body irradiation or TBI is a technique that prepares the body to receive a bone marrow transplant. Radiation can be administered as external radiation therapy (from outside the body) or internal radiation therapy (implantation of radiation materials inside the body).
The selection of small cell lung cancer treatment whether by chemotherapy or combination treatments depend on the stage of the cancer if it is limited or in the extensive stage.
Surgery rarely plays a role in small cell lung cancer treatment because most lung cancers have spread by the time they are found. Uncommon exceptions happen when small cell lung cancer is discovered at the very early stage of the disease while malignancy is still confined to the lung without metastases to the lymph nodes. When diagnosis happens at a very early stage of the disease, surgical removal of the lung tumor may be performed. However it is not considered curative in itself which still leads to administration of chemotherapy.
Tags: Lung Cancer, small cell lung cancer treatment, what is small cell lung cancer treatment