Abstract
Small cell lung cancer (SCLC) remains one of the cancers with a very poor prognosis, accounting for about 15% of tung cancer diagnoses. Epidemiology, biology, diagnosis and therapy of limited and extensive stages of the disease are briefly presented in the comprehensive article. lt is a tumor that is usually diagnosed in advanced stages, initially mainly chemosensitive and radiosensitive.
Treatment-induced remissions tend to be temporary, especially in advanced stages ofthe disease, there is no known effective adjuvant treatment, second- and higher-line treatment is only effective in the short term. Limited stages of the disease can be successfully treated either with concomitant chemoradiotherapy with prophylactic brain irradiation, very early stages with surgery and adjuvant chemotherapy.
A new direction that has improved the results of treatment of extensive stages of SCLC is the combination of chemotherapy with immuno-oncological treatment - durvalumab and atezolizumab. Promising second- and further-line drugs appear to be lurbinectedin, talazoparib, olaparib, temozolomide and the sintilimabanlotinib combination.
Currently, the development of diagnostic and treatment modalities for SCLC is less favorable from the point ofview of practical use than the development of diagnostics and therapy for non-small cell carcinomas.