Adjuvant chemotherapy in non-small cell lung cancer

Adjuvant chemotherapy is considered a standard of care for many malignancies, the most well known being breast and colon cancer. Unfortunately, less than a third of patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) present with resectable disease and despite resection outcomes are often poor with a median 5-year survival of 40-50%. Modern chemotherapy for NSCLC provides both a survival advantage and an improvement in quality of life in the palliative setting. Several large studies using modern platinum-based regimens have been presented since the 1995 meta-analysis. This demonstrated a nonsignificant benefit for older platinum-based regiments. These studies have consistently shown a survival benefit across all stages of resection with acceptable toxicity. The absolute magnitude of benefit is consistent with that achieved in other malignancies where adjuvant chemotherapy is offered as a standard of care.