Lung cancers are generally divided into 2 types:
This type is much more common than small cell lung cancer, accounting for about 85% to 90% of lung cancers. The 3 main kinds of non-small cell lung cancer are named for the type of cells in the tumor:
This type is sometimes called oat cell cancer because the cancer cells may look like oats when viewed under a microscope, grows rapidly and quickly spreads to other organs. There are two stages of small cell lung cancer:
Your physician will be able to identify which type of lung cancer you have after his assessment and work up. It is important to find out what kind of lung cancer a person has. The different types of carcinomas, involving different regions of the lung, may cause different symptoms and are treated differently.