[Staging of inoperable small cell bronchial cancer]

This paper compares two staging regimes for the inoperable small-cell carcinoma of the lung. It reveals that at present the differentiation in two classes of the Veterans Administration Lung Cancer Study Group (VALCSG) is preferred to the TNM-classification of the World Health Organization (WHO), as it includes an orientation of prognosis and enables consequences of therapy relevant to practice. If studies of therapy of the small-cell carcinoma of the lung are compared, the uniform application of the classification should be considered.