Adjuvant chemotherapy for resected non-small cell lung cancer

Surgery remains the mainstay of therapy for early stage non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), but even for stage IA, disease relapse rates remain as high as 30%. Patients with completely resected (R0) N1 disease have about a 50% chance of relapse. In the past 5 years, the benefit of adjuvant chemotherapy has finally been demonstrated for patients with lung cancer. Improvements of 5% to 10% 5-year survival have been reported with cisplatin-based chemotherapy. Still, cure rates have significant room for improvement and ongoing trials with "targeted" agents such as those active against the vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), and vaccine therapy will hopefully further increase the odds for patients with resected disease. Other studies looking at tumor gene and protein expression will lead us toward better identification of patients most likely to benefit from therapy.