Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center: Young non-smokers may develop specific small cell lung cancer

A team of doctors and researchers at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK) have identified a new, rare type of small cell lung cancer (SCLC) that primarily affects younger people who have never smoked, MSK reports. The results of their research are presented on the MSK website.

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death worldwide. One of the main risk factors for its development is smoking. However, many studies have shown that lung cancer increasingly affects non-smokers.

The new subtype of the disease, which MSK scientists have named “atypical small cell lung carcinoma,” has distinct clinical and pathological features, and a distinct molecular mechanism compared to conventional small cell lung cancer.

Out of 600 patients with SCLC whose cancers were analyzed for the study, only 20 people (or 3%) were found to have the rare subtype. The mean age at this diagnosis was 53.

Atypical small cell lung cancer starts much earlier than usual. Scientists have also clarified that 65% of these patients were never smokers.

According to the researchers, in the case of atypical form of small cell cancer, a catastrophic rearrangement of chromosomes is observed.

The analysis also found that the unique genomic changes that give rise to atypical SCLC mean that standard, first-line, platinum-based chemotherapies don’t work as well. 

According to scientists, to fight such cancers, alternative treatments that target the unique genetic changes in tumor cells are needed.