Lung cancer facts for kids

Lung cancer is the uncontrolled growth of abnormal cells in one or both of the lungs. Cigarette smoking causes most lung cancers when smoke gets in the lungs.

The large majority of people who get lung cancer have smoked for many years. However, there are types of lung cancers that appear in otherwise healthy patients who have never smoked.

There are two main types of lung cancer, small cell lung cancer and non-small cell lung cancer. Small cell lung cancer typically responds well to chemotherapy and radiotherapy, and non-small cell lung cancer is more commonly treated with surgical removal of the lung tumor.

Images for kids

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  Pneumonectomy specimen containing a squamous-cell carcinoma, seen as a white area near the bronchi

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  The main treatment arms of phase 3 clinical trials providing immunotherapy in the first line for patients with NSCLC https://doi.org/10.3390/ph13110373

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  Overall survival in NSCLC patients treated with protocols incorporating immunotherapy in the first line for advanced or metastatic disease. Nasser NJ, Gorenberg M, Agbarya A. Pharmaceuticals 2020, 13(11), 373; https://doi.org/10.3390/ph13110373

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  Lung cancer, incidence, mortality, and survival, England 1971–2011

See also

In Spanish: Cáncer de pulmón para niños