Adjuvant Therapy for Stage I and II Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer

Patients with stage I and stage II non-small cell lung cancer undergoing complete resection have a 40% to 70% 5-year overall survival despite optimal local therapy. Chemotherapy administered after complete resection has been shown to improve overall survival at 5 years by approximately 5%. This improvement in survival may be confined to patients with stage IB disease 4 cm or greater, and to those with hilar or mediastinal lymph node involvement. The optimal chemotherapy regimen appears to be cisplatin-based doublet or triplet chemotherapy for 3 to 4 cycles. The addition of biologic agents has failed to improve outcomes.