[Surgical therapy of locally advanced non-small cell lung carcinoma]

Experience during the past 10 years has shown up different opinions on the surgical treatment of patients with stage III non-small cell lung cancer. In the light of high resectability and survival rates (respectively 80.8% and 40% at 2 years in the experience of the Southwest Oncology Group) produced with neoadjuvant therapy (followed by surgery) it appears to be an appealing therapeutic option. Until recently, there have been no large prospective randomized phase III trials to answer the question of whether neoadjuvant therapy is superior to other treatment modalities (surgical resection alone; non-surgical treatment).