Description
Lung cancer is the commonest malignant disease in Western Europe and the United States. In the UK there are over 30,000 deaths annually from lung cancer. Whilst the incidence in men is decreasing that in women is increasing. The three key determinants of survival are: the tumour cell type, the stage of tumour at presentation and the presence of co-morbidities. The incidence of cell type varies between populations studied. The differentiation between cell types can be difficult particularly on cytological specimens and biopsies from different sites of the same tumour can show divergent histological appearances. The principle differentiation for the pathologist to make is between small-cell (oat cell) lung cancer and non small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC).
