Recent advances in managing non-small-cell lung cancer: 3. Radiation therapy

The most important role of radiation therapy in NSCLC is the palliation of symptoms due to intrathoracic and metastatic disease. Short courses of treatment appear to be as effective as protracted courses. In patients with good performance status and no evidence of distant metastases, high dose radiation therapy (radical radiation therapy) provides short term survival benefits. Up to a quarter of stage I patients may survive for five years. Combinations of chemotherapy and radiation therapy appear to be more effective than radiation therapy alone, and sufficient evidence now exists to support combined radiation therapy and platinum-based chemotherapy as the best standard of care for patients with good performance status and unresectable disease.