Can stereotactic ablative radiotherapy in early stage lung cancers produce comparable success as surgery?

Early stage non-small cell lung cancer is a potentially curable manifestation of a disease that is typically associated with a grim prognosis. Therapies directed at early stage disease can be challenging to deliver because patients tend to be elderly with multiple comorbidities. Surgery, the standard of care, has been validated with long-term follow-up. However, the risk of perioperative mortality and morbidity can limit the feasibility of an operation for many high-risk patients. Stereotactic ablative radiotherapy uses highly focused, ablative doses of radiation to treat tumors and has emerged as an alternative to surgery.