large cell neuroendocrine carcinoma of the lung large cell neuroendocrine carcinoma of the lung large-cell neuroendocrine carcinoma of the lung (lcnec of the lung), or pulmonary large-cell neuroendocrine carcinoma (plcnc), is a highly malignant neoplasm arising from transformed epithelial cells originating in tissues within the pulmonary tree. it is currently considered to be a subtype of large-cell lung carcinoma. main article: neuroendocrine tumor lcnec is often generically grouped among the non-small-cell lung carcinomas. lcnecs often have inactivations of p53 and rb (~40%), or inactivation of tp53 and stk11 or keap1 (~40%). variants the world health organization classification of lung tumors recognizes a variant of lcnec, namely "combined large-cell neuroendocrine carcinoma" (c-lcnec).