Can surgery improve local control in small cell lung cancer?

Current therapy for small cell lung cancer (SCLC) consists of chemotherapy with or without radiotherapy. Radiotherapy is generally accepted as an essential treatment component of limited stage disease. However, the local failure rate after chemo- and radiotherapy is still high and ranges from 30 to 70%. Furthermore, despite having obtained a complete radiographic response, up to 75% of these patients will have residual disease in the tumor specimen, if resection is performed. Therefore, more effective means are needed to eradicate the primary tumor and to obtain an improved local disease control. Recent phase two trials of multimodal regimens for stage I-IIIA SCLC demonstrate that in selected patients with early stage SCLC the combination of surgery and chemotherapy with or without radiotherapy is feasible with low morbidity and mortality rates. The combination therapy results in satisfying long term outcome depending on the pathological tumor stage and a local disease control is achieved in almost all patients. It is remarkable that the pneumonectomy rate has decreased over the past decades from almost 100 to 27-39%. In order to confirm these promising results, a German multicenter prospective randomized phase III trial has been designed for patients with stage I-IIIA SCLC consisting of induction chemotherapy, followed by surgery, adjuvant thoracic radiotherapy and prophylactic cranial radiation compared to thoracic radiotherapy and prophylactic cranial radiation.