Current consensus is that the long-term prognosis of c-SCLC patients is determined by the SCLC component of their tumor, given that "pure" SCLC seems to have the worst long-term prognosis of all forms of lung cancer. Although data on c-SCLC is very sparse, some studies suggest that survival rates in c-SCLC may be even worse than that of pure SCLC, likely due to the lower rate of complete response to chemoradiation in c-SCLC, although not all studies have shown a significant difference in survival. Untreated "pure" SCLC patients have a median survival time of between 4 weeks and 4 months, depending on stage and performance status at the time of diagnosis. Given proper multimodality treatment, SCLC patients with limited disease have median survival rates of between 16 and 24 months, and about 20% will be cured. In patients with extensive disease SCLC, although 60% to 70% will have good-to-complete responses to treatment, very few will be cured, with a median survival of only 6 to 10 months. Some evidence suggests that c-SCLC patients who continue to smoke may have much worse outcomes after treatment than those who quit.
Combined small-cell lung carcinoma
Salivary gland–like carcinoma of the lung
Epithelial-myoepithelial carcinoma of the lung
Adenosquamous lung carcinoma
Large-cell lung carcinoma
Basaloid squamous cell lung carcinoma
Mucinous cystadenocarcinoma of the lung
Sarcomatoid carcinoma of the lung