This site is intended for healthcare professionals

Sign in
Go to /sign-in page

You can view 5 more pages before signing in

Prognosis

Authoring team

  • 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:

  1. Kim SY, Park HS, Chiang AC. Small Cell Lung Cancer: A Review. JAMA. 2025;333(21):1906–1917.
  2. Basumallik N, Agarwal M. Small Cell Lung Cancer. [Updated 2023 Jul 10]. In: StatPearls [Internet]. Treasure Island (FL): StatPearls Publishing; 2025 Jan-.

Create an account to add page annotations

Create a free account

Annotations allow you to add information to this page that would be handy to have on hand during a consultation. E.g. a website or number. This information will always show when you visit this page.

The content herein is provided for informational purposes and does not replace the need to apply professional clinical judgement when diagnosing or treating any medical condition. A licensed medical practitioner should be consulted for diagnosis and treatment of any and all medical conditions.

Connect

Copyright 2025 Oxbridge Solutions Limited, a subsidiary of OmniaMed Communications Limited. All rights reserved. Any distribution or duplication of the information contained herein is strictly prohibited. Oxbridge Solutions receives funding from advertising but maintains editorial independence.