Neoadjuvant chemo for lung cancer – pro

Lay Summary: Chemotherapy has at least three distinct roles in various non-small lung cancer situations.

Neoadjuvant therapy for locally advanced non-small cell lung cancer has evolved rapidly near the turn of the century. Historically, radiation used to be the only treatment for unresectable non-small cell lung cancer. In 1990, Dillman et al introduced the use of neoadjuvant cisplatin-based chemotherapy before radiation with better survival, and other chemotherapy regimens used in this fashion also yielded comparable results. Nevertheless, adding adjuvant chemotherapy after radiation provided no additional benefit. Subsequently, the use of neoadjuvant chemotherapy followed by radiation waned, when concurrent chemoradiation had been found to produce better survival outcome. Today, concurrent chemoradiation is the standard of care for patients with unresectable non-small cell lung cancer who have good performance status.

In certain situations, concurrent chemoradiation has transformed its role from a definitive treatment into a neoadjuvant treatment before radical resection. Concurrent chemoradiation may render some unresectable non-small cell lung cancers resectable. Although no data from randomized, controlled trials are available, it is evident that patients with superior sulcus tumor or pancoast tumor, after undergoing neoadjuvant radiation with or without concurrent chemotherapy, may become eligible for complete resection and achieve prolonged disease-free survival.

For patients with resectable but locally advanced non-small cell lung cancer, outcome of treatment with surgery alone is poor. Several small, randomized studies suggest that neoadjuvant chemotherapy before surgery improves overall survival when compared with surgery alone. One such study, for instance, using 3 cycles of chemotherapy followed by surgery, demonstrated an increase in median survival from 8 months in the surgery-alone arm to 26 months in the neoadjuvant arm. Subsequent larger studies, however, produced conflicting results. Other investigators have experimented with concurrent chemoradiation followed by surgery in comparison with chemoradiation alone.[48] Preliminary data indicate that patients who respond well to chemoradiation may benefit from subsequent surgery, although long-term follow-up is still necessary.
Furuse K, Fukuoka M, Kawahara M, et al. Phase III study of concurrent versus sequential thoracic radiotherapy in combination with mitomycin, vindesine, and cisplatin in unresectable stage III non-small-cell lung cancer. J Clin Oncol 1999;17:2692-2699.

  1. Rusch VW, Giroux DJ, Kraut MJ, et al. Induction chemoradiation and surgical resection for non-small cell lung carcinomas of the superior sulcus: initial results of Southwest Oncology Group Trial 9416 (Intergroup Trial 0160). J Thorac Cardiovasc Surg 2001;121:472-483.

    nccn.org, lung cancer

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