Small cell carcinoma

I am sorry to hear about your husband, he is so young. Normally SCLC surgery does not take place, because of size or location. 

My friend was diagnosed with SCLC at the end of July 2023. Surgery was not an option because of the location and large size of the tumour. She was offered chemotherapy and immunotherapy as palliative treatment because the oncologists and radiologists deemed it to be "incurable".  She began her chemotherapy very quickly after diagnosis and, apart from losing her hair, she had very minimal side-effects.  She is now 18 months down the line and is fit and well, the combined chemotherapy and immunotherapy has shrunk the tumour somewhat and thankfully is keeping it stable.

Your husband will begin his treatment quickly and hopefully he will have minimal side-effects. Cancer treatment has come along in leaps and bounds over the last ten years or so with good long term prognoses.

Best wishes to you and your husband.

Ann

Hi Jchaz

So very sorry that you have cause to be on here.

Briefly; I was diagnosed with SCLC in August 2011 at aged 53.  My SCLC was defined as 'limited' i.e it had not spread beyond the left lung although there was a lot of it in the lung (I saw the initial x-ray!).   My treatment plan was 4 cycles of chemo (over 3 days every 3 weeks).  On day one of cycle 2, I started 33 daily sessions of high dose radiotherapy (Mon to Fri with weekends off).  I will not iie to you it was tough; that said it was very doable.

Approx 6-8 weeks after the chemoradiation  finished, I had 120 sessions of lower dose radiotherapy to the brain in order to zap any cancer cells that may have travelled from the long; chemo is not brilliant at getting through the brain lining, so this radiotherapy is more precautionary.  This was the easiest aspect of the treatment plan.

As you can see, some 13 years later I am still alive and kicking!

I hope this helps a bit.

Kegsy x