A 54-Year-Old Man Has Just Been Diagnosed with Small Cell

A 54-year-old man has just been diagnosed with small cell lung cancer. The patient asks the nurse why the doctor is not offering surgery as a treatment for his cancer. What fact about lung cancer treatment should inform the nurses response?

A) The cells in small cell cancer of the lung are not large enough to visualize in surgery.
B) Small cell lung cancer is self-limiting in many patients and surgery should be delayed.
C) Patients with small cell lung cancer are not normally stable enough to survive surgery.
D) Small cell cancer of the lung grows rapidly and metastasizes early and extensively.