Adjuvant chemotherapy after complete resection for early stage NSCLC.
Less than 20-25% of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients present with stage I or II disease are best treated by surgical resection. Long-term survival in NSCLC remains poor also in these early stages: the 5-year survival rate of patients who undergo complete surgical resection is only 40 to 50%. The majority of post-surgical relapses are distant metastases with the risk of a local recurrence after complete resection being less than 10%. Postoperative treatments, including chemotherapy, radiotherapy or both, have been widely evaluated during the last decades and, unfortunately, none has demonstrated any significant impact on survival. Data regarding large-scale adjuvant chemotherapy trials, closed for the accrual almost four to five years ago, will be fully available soon and, hopefully, a specific meta-analysis will be performed.
Scagliotti
Giorgio
G
Department of Clinical and Biological Sciences, University of Torino, Azienda Ospedaliera S. Luigi, Thoracic Oncology Unit, Orbassano, Torino, Italy. scagliotti@ihnet.it
Novello
Silvia
S
D000971:Antineoplastic Combined Chemotherapy Protocols / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D002289:Carcinoma, Non-Small-Cell Lung / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery; D017024:Chemotherapy, Adjuvant; D006801:Humans; D008175:Lung Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery; D009364:Neoplasm Recurrence, Local / Q000517:prevention & control*; D011379:Prognosis; D016019:Survival Analysis