Small cell carcinoma of the lung natural history

Prognostic factors
The pretreatment prognostic factors that consistently predict for prolonged survival include good performance status, female gender, and limited-stage disease. Patients with involvement of the central nervous system or liver at the time of diagnosis have a significantly worse outcome. In general, patients who are confined to bed tolerate aggressive forms of treatment poorly, have increased morbidity, and rarely attain 2-year disease-free survival; however, patients with poor performance status can often derive significant palliative benefit and prolongation of survival from treatment.

Regardless of stage, the current prognosis for patients with SCLC is unsatisfactory even though considerable improvements in diagnosis and therapy have been made during the past 10 to 15 years.