Long-term survival in small-cell lung cancer: posttreatment characteristics in patients surviving 5 to 18+ years--an analysis of 1,714 consecutive patients.

Long-term survival can be achieved for both stages of SCLC, but without any change in survival rates over the last decade. Long-term survivors continuously seem to have considerable mortality due to late relapses and secondary malignancies, especially tobacco-related cancers and other tobacco-related diseases.