Indications for surgical treatment in small cell carcinoma of the lung.

Small cell carcinoma of the lung is notable for extreme malignancy in clinical behavior, with rapid growth, wide dissemination, and short survival after treatment. It is highly responsive to chemotherapy and radiation therapy, yet seldom cured. Prevalent therapeutic dogma rules out surgical resection as any part of treatment. We find, however, that patients with disease in stages I and II, treated with initial resection followed by the full course of chemotherapy, have a good prognosis for long disease-free survival.