Adjuvant chemotherapy in resected non-small cell lung cancer

There is still a high mortality ratio in completely resected non-small cell lung cancer patients either due to local or, more often, to metastatic recurrence. The NSCLC Collaborative Group Meta-analysis demonstrated a not statistically significant advantage in patients treated with cisplatin-based regimens. Many subsequent trials were unable to demonstrate the real effectiveness of cisplatin-based adjuvant chemotherapy with a significant rate of toxicity. The IALT trial demonstrated little advantage in overall and disease-free survival with acceptable toxicity. A recent meta-analysis of trials including 5716 patients demonstrated the role of cisplatin-based chemotherapy as adjuvant treatment of resected non-small cell lung cancer even if results shoud be carefully examined. At present, adjuvant chemotherapy in non-small cell cancer should not be reserved to experimental trials.