Best supportive care versus palliative chemotherapy in nonsmall-cell lung cancer.

The incidence of lung cancer continues to rise. The need and demand for more effective treatment to improve survival and palliate symptoms increases at a great rate. The most recent evidence for the use of chemotherapy in the palliative setting is summarized in this review of the literature from the last few years. It indicates that in advanced nonsmall-cell lung cancer survival, symptom control and physical functioning can be improved with the use of chemotherapy not only in the first-line but also in the second-line setting, in the elderly, and at disease relapse.