Abdominal CT in the staging of small cell carcinoma of the lung

Small cell carcinoma of the lung (SCCL) is a fulminant disease process with early extrathoracic dissemination. Surgery for cure has generally been abandoned and combined chemotherapy is the treatment of choice. The staging of SCCL is designed to identify areas of involvement for (1) comparison of therapeutic techniques, (2) prognostic determinations, (3) determination of sites of disease to use for assessment of response, and (4) for determination of areas that may require additional local therapy such as radiation or surgery. The staging evaluation, therefore, is designed to evaluate the extent of extrathoracic disease rather than just the presence of chest involvement. CT scanning has made a valuable contribution to the delineation of intrathoracic and metastatic disease and is now included in the staging workup of patients with SCCL since metastatic involvement of the liver, bone, bone marrow, CNS, and adrenal glands is common.