Combined modality treatment for non-small cell lung cancer. Lung Cancer Study Group

A total of 265 patients with non-small cell lung cancer at stages 1 and 2 by preoperative clinical staging were divided into 4 stages after exploratory thoracotomy. Patients at each stage were further divided into subgroups to receive different adjuvant therapies. The cumulative 5-year survival rate showed to be 44.4% for stage 1, 35.5% for stage 2, 7.4% for stage 3 and 0% for stage 4. Histologically, the rate was 28.8% for squamous cell carcinoma, 23.4% for adenocarcinoma, and 29.8% for large cell carcinoma and carcinoma poorly differentiated. For patients at stage 1, it made no significant difference whether they underwent surgical resection only or combined with postoperative intrapleural BCG injection. For patients at stage 2, there was no significant difference between surgical resection only and resection combined with postoperative radiotherapy. For patients at stage 3, who underwent surgical resection combined with chemotherapy and/or radiotherapy, it seemed that combined chemotherapy and radiotherapy presented better results than radiotherapy or chemotherapy alone.