New agents in the management of advanced non-small cell lung cancer.

Non-small cell lung cancer accounts for 75% to 80% of the approximately 180,000 new cases of lung cancer that will develop in the Unites States this year. At the time of diagnosis, only 30% to 40% of patients are candidates for curative resection. Even for these patients, the 5-year survival rate ranges from 30% to 70%, indicating that many of these "early stage" patients have micrometastatic disease at the time of initial diagnosis. The remaining approximately 60% of newly diagnosed patients have either locally advanced unresectable disease or stage IV metastatic disease, and the majority of these patients will die of progressive disease before the first anniversary of their diagnosis. Overall, the 5-year survival rate for all newly diagnosed patients with non-small cell lung cancer has improved over the past two decades from 5% to 10% in the United States.