Small cell lung cancer: patients surviving longer than thirty months. Groupe d'oncologie de langue française.

The long-term survivors of SCLC are described in 3 different types of study: analysis of prognostic factors of phase II and III chemotherapy trials (3,4,5,6,7,17,18), epidemiological studies (8) and medical registries of LTS (9,10). A small number of patients with small cell lung cancer achieve long-term survival. Most of these patients have a disease limited to the chest at the time of diagnosis. The major concerns of these LTSs are: the relapse of the SCLC, the occurrence of a second primary tumour and the occurrence of a disease related to tobacco consumption. About 20% of the LTSs die of non-cancer related causes and this exceeds the age adjusted mortality. There is a high risk of relapse in the first 4 years after the diagnosis; this risk decreases later, but relapses may be seen until 7 years. Nearly 8% of LTSs developed a SPTs are alive at 8 years; this indicates that cure is possible in SCLC, however, these patients account for less than 3% of the overall population.