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What is Small Cell Carcinoma of the Lung, the Cancer Dustin Diamond Died Of?

Kristie Leong M.D.
4 min readFeb 2, 2021

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It’s always a shock when you hear that someone relatively young develops cancer. Dustin Diamond, the actor and comedian who acted in Saved by the Bell, died several weeks after learning he had stage 4 small cell carcinoma of the lung. It must have come as a shock to people who knew him, especially since he appeared relatively healthy!

Small cell carcinoma of the lung has a grim prognosis, and the fact that he was stage 4 suggests that his cancer was diagnosed at a late stage, where it had already spread outside the lungs to other organs such as the liver or brain. According to reports, Dustin Diamond’s cancer had spread to multiple areas of his body.

You might wonder what small cell carcinoma of the lung is and whether, like other lung cancers, it occurs mainly in smokers. Let’s take a closer look at what this type of cancer is and its symptoms and prognosis are.

What is Small Cell Carcinoma of the Lung?

Small cell carcinoma is a type of cancer that affects neuroendocrine cells in the lungs, cells that produce a variety of chemicals and hormones. What makes this form of lung cancer unique is the affected neuroendocrine cells produce hormones that affect other parts of the body removed from the lungs, a syndrome…

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Kristie Leong M.D.
Kristie Leong M.D.

Written by Kristie Leong M.D.

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