Chemotherapy for non-small-cell lung cancer. Part 1: Early-stage disease.

Non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) accounts for approximately 80% of all lung tumors. Patients diagnosed with early-stage disease generally undergo surgery, but up to 50% develop local or distant recurrences. The benefit of chemotherapy in this disease is modest, but new drugs and combined strategies offer hope of improved survival rates. Because the disease recurs outside the chest in 70% of cases, one of the foremost goals of therapy is to prevent distant dissemination. To this end, chemotherapy may be administered preoperatively or after resection of the tumor. The first part of this article, which concludes next month, will address adjuvant and neoadjuvant chemotherapy in early-stage non-small-cell lung cancer.