[grecy]

The really crappy part of lung cancer is that it's very uncommon to detect it because there aren't really any symptoms to speak of.

Eventually it will metastasize so some other part of the body and THAT will give symptoms.

When my Mum was diagnosed the Dr. said the bad news is you have cancer in the bones in your neck. The really bad news is that it started in your lungs, and it's way, way to far along to do anything about.

Cancer sucks.

[haldujai]

The good thing is in most people (particularly smokers) it is very slow growing.

We also have great non-invasive curative treatment options like stereotactic radiation.

[jorvi]

Don’t smokers account for ~99% of cases of small-cell lung cancer, which is by far the worst type to have (very prone to metastasis and grows rapidly)?

[haldujai]

Small-cell (SCLC) is definitely very aggressive and more strongly associated with smoking than non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), I'm not sure about 99% but that seems too high.

It's fairly rare though, the quoted numbers from SEER are 14% but from a clinical perspective most of us that deal with lung cancer feel that's discordant with our practices and likely an overestimate.

In either case, smoker or non-smoker you're far more likely to develop NSCLC with adenocarcinoma being more common than squamous cell (typically only in smokers for the latter but still less common than adenocarcinoma).

The typical adenocarcinoma most people get has a doubling time of roughly 1-2 years.

[jorvi]

> I'm not sure about 99% but that seems too high.

I double checked, only 2.5% of SCLC incidences is from non-smokers.

[fendy3002]

same here, my mother had cancer in spine when diagnosed, and it came from lung. Already late stage and metastasize. No symptom until it reached the spine and causing occasional pain and lately inability to move her legs.

Died on less than 2 months after that. It sucks.

[grecy]

I'm really sorry to hear that.

My Mum was told that people with her diagnosis survive on average one year. She fought hard through radiation and years of chemo, and made it just less than three years after the diagnosis. Through most of it she was waking me up at 6am to go for a sunrise walk on the beach. I hope I can be that strong one day.