{"entity":{"id":"lung-cancer","kind":"cancer","name":"Lung cancer (all types)","aka":["Bronchogenic carcinoma","Lung carcinoma"],"tldr":"Lung cancer splits into non-small-cell (about 85 percent) and small-cell (about 15 percent) disease, which behave and are treated very differently. The subtype pages carry the detail; this page covers screening, staging and what the types share.","summary":"Lung cancer is divided by histology into non-small-cell lung cancer, itself split into adenocarcinoma, squamous and large-cell carcinoma, and small-cell lung cancer, a fast-growing neuroendocrine tumour almost always linked to smoking. Non-small-cell disease has more than a dozen targetable driver mutations and is treated with surgery, radiotherapy, targeted drugs and immunotherapy by stage and biology; small-cell disease is treated with chemotherapy, immunotherapy and radiotherapy and relapses quickly. Low-dose CT screening of heavy smokers cuts lung cancer deaths by about a fifth, and tobacco control remains the largest lever. Mesothelioma and thymic tumours are separate thoracic cancers.","asOf":"2026-09-17","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lung_cancer","links":[{"label":"Wikipedia","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lung_cancer"},{"label":"NCI PDQ","url":"https://www.cancer.gov/types/lung"}],"tags":["parent-page"],"related":[],"cancers":[],"sections":[],"technologies":[],"targets":[],"drugs":[],"companies":[],"institutions":[],"pathways":[],"terms":[],"trials":[],"people":[],"bottlenecks":[],"keyPapers":[],"journals":[],"notes":[],"group":"thoracic","burden":"The leading cause of cancer death worldwide, with about 2.5 million new cases and 1.8 million deaths a year; most cases are caused by smoking, and survival depends heavily on the stage at diagnosis.","subtypes":["Non-small-cell lung cancer (adenocarcinoma, squamous, large cell)","Small-cell lung cancer","Carcinoid and other neuroendocrine tumours of the lung","Pleuropulmonary blastoma (childhood)"],"biomarkers":["EGFR, ALK, ROS1, KRAS G12C, BRAF V600E, MET exon 14, RET, NTRK, HER2 mutations (non-small-cell)","PD-L1 expression","Stage by TNM and PET-CT","Circulating tumour DNA for minimal residual disease"],"standardOfCare":[{"setting":"Screening","approach":"Annual low-dose CT for people aged about 50 to 80 with a heavy smoking history (NLST, NELSON).","refs":["nlst-nelson"]},{"setting":"Diagnosis and staging","approach":"CT, PET-CT, bronchoscopy or CT-guided biopsy, endobronchial ultrasound of nodes, brain MRI; molecular testing on every non-squamous non-small-cell tumour.","refs":["nsclc","pet"]},{"setting":"Treatment","approach":"By type and stage on the subtype pages: surgery or stereotactic radiotherapy for early disease, chemoradiation with immunotherapy for locally advanced, targeted or immune therapy for metastatic disease.","refs":["nsclc","sclc","sbrt"]}],"stateOfArt":["Immunotherapy and targeted drugs have doubled or tripled survival in metastatic non-small-cell disease over a decade.","CT screening is now recommended in the US, UK and much of Europe but uptake is low.","Small-cell lung cancer has gained immunotherapy and the DLL3 T-cell engager tarlatamab after decades without progress."],"history":[{"year":1950,"title":"Doll and Hill link smoking to lung cancer","refs":[]},{"year":2004,"title":"EGFR mutations explain gefitinib responses","refs":["gefitinib"]},{"year":2011,"title":"NLST: CT screening cuts lung cancer deaths by 20 percent","refs":["nlst-nelson"]},{"year":2015,"title":"Nivolumab approved: immunotherapy enters lung cancer","refs":["nivolumab"]},{"year":2024,"title":"Tarlatamab: first targeted drug for small-cell lung cancer","refs":["tarlatamab"]}],"pipeline":[],"openProblems":["Most patients still present with advanced disease.","Resistance to every targeted drug emerges within one to three years.","Screening reaches a small fraction of those eligible.","Small-cell lung cancer survival remains under a year for most with extensive disease."]},"route":"/cancers/lung-cancer/","neighbours":{"drug":[{"id":"gefitinib","kind":"drug","name":"Gefitinib","route":"/drugs/gefitinib/"},{"id":"nivolumab","kind":"drug","name":"Nivolumab","route":"/drugs/nivolumab/"},{"id":"tarlatamab","kind":"drug","name":"Tarlatamab","route":"/drugs/tarlatamab/"}],"trial":[{"id":"nlst-nelson","kind":"trial","name":"NLST & NELSON (low-dose CT screening)","route":"/trials/nlst-nelson/"}],"cancer":[{"id":"nsclc","kind":"cancer","name":"Non-small-cell lung cancer","route":"/cancers/nsclc/"},{"id":"sclc","kind":"cancer","name":"Small-cell lung cancer","route":"/cancers/sclc/"}],"technology":[{"id":"pet","kind":"technology","name":"PET (positron emission tomography)","route":"/technologies/pet/"},{"id":"sbrt","kind":"technology","name":"SBRT / SABR (stereotactic radiotherapy)","route":"/technologies/sbrt/"}]}}