What is non-small cell lung cancer?
The non-small cell type of lung cancer is characterized by relatively large cells.
These cells also have a certain arrangement in the tissue. Based on a number of characteristics of the cell and the arrangement can be distinguished: squamous cell carcinoma (of overlying cells originating from the airways), adenocarcinoma (cell assuming the lung tissue) and grootcelligcarcinoom (also assuming the lung tissue but larger cells and without known structures ).
The growth rate of these forms is different: the squamous cell grows the slowest and the fastest large cell tumor. In comparison with small cell lung cancer, sow these cell types relatively slowly from the body (through the lymph vessels to the lymph nodes and via the bloodstream to various organs).
At what stage of tumor growth exactly this happens is not clear but it seems likely that this happens before the tumor symptoms. This is because the tumor has long been grown in the body before they can be discovered. In the period between the occurrence of the tumor and the time when the tumor is detected are sometimes many years.
During that period, the tumor spread through the body.
