Chemotherapy of stage IIIB and IV non-small-cell lung cancer.

Currently, lung cancer is a leading cause of death in men with more than half million new cases diagnosed every year. Eighty percent of these tumors are non-small-cell carcinoma and 70% of these are unresectable or metastatic at the time of presentation, resulting in dramatically poor survival rates. The increasing number of drugs showing a significant activity against non-small-cell lung cancer and the widespread use of modern cisplatin based regimens offer some hope of progress and suggest that chemotherapy may have a role in treating this disease. A recent meta-analysis has confirmed the modest but significant survival benefit for patients treated with combined chemotherapy both in case of metastatic disease and in addition to radiotherapy, in locally advanced disease.