The American Cancer Society provides an excellent overview of the history of cancer . In a clinical study, patients with stage III melanoma were treated with either high dose alfa interferon for one month and lower doses for 48 weeks or no adjuvant therapy. Cancers that begin in the lungs are divided into two major types, non- small cell lung cancer and small cell lung cancer, depending on how the cells look under a microscope. Non-small cell lung cancer spreads to distant organs more slowly than small cell lung cancer. Small cell lung cancer, also called oat cell cancer, is the less common type of lung cancer.
Lung cancer develops slowly over many years.
With continued exposure to carcinogens, these abnormal cells may become cancerous and form a tumor which can develop in various areas in the lung. A tumor may develop in a bronchus, for example. Or a tumor may develop in the outer part of the lung, where it can grow into the lining of the lungs or into the ribs and muscle of the chest wall. Cancer cells may also grow into one or more of the lung's many blood and lymph vessels, after which the cancer cells could be carried by the blood or lymph to other parts of the body. This is called metastasis, or spreading, of cancer.