The pathologist checks the sputum, pleural fluid, tissue, or other samples for cancer cells. If cancer is found, the pathologist reports the type. The types of lung cancer are treated differently. The most common types are named for how the lung cancer cells look under a microscope:
Small cell lung cancer: About 13 percent of lung cancers are small cell lung cancers. This type tends to spread quickly.
Non-small cell lung cancer: Most lung cancers (about 87 percent) are non-small cell lung cancers. This type spreads more slowly than small cell lung cancer.
The National Cancer Institute (NCI) is part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), which is one of 11 agencies that comprise the U.S. Public Health Service (PHS) in the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).