<unk> -cell lung cancers have long been considered to be exceptionally aggressive malignancies that grow very rapidly and have a very poor prognosis. Many small series have suggested that the prognosis of lung tumors with<unk> <unk> s is worse than that of most other forms of non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC), including squamous<unk>  carcinoma, and spindle<unk>  carcinoma. The overall five-year survival rate in GCCL varies between studies but is generally considered to be very low. The (US) Armed Forces Institute of Pathology has reported a figure of 10%, and in a study examining over 150,000 lung cancer cases, a figure of 11.8% was given. However, in the latter report the 11.8% figure was based on data that included spindle<unk>  carcinoma, a variant which is generally considered to have a less dismal prognosis than GCCL. Therefore, the likely survival of "pure" GCCL is probably lower than the stated figure. In the large 1995 database review by Travis and colleagues,<unk> -cell carcinoma has the third-worst prognosis among 18 histological forms of lung cancer. (Only small-cell carcinoma and large-cell carcinoma had shorter average survival.) Most GCCL have already grown and invaded locally and/or regionally, and/or have already metastasized distantly, and are inoperable, at the time of diagnosis.
Giant-cell carcinoma of the lung
Mucinous cystadenocarcinoma of the lung
Sarcomatoid carcinoma of the lung
Epithelial-myoepithelial carcinoma of the lung
Pulmonary sclerosing pneumocytoma
Adenocarcinoma of the lung
Salivary gland–like carcinoma of the lung
Mesothelioma