Oncologic Treatment of Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer Part A: Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy Options for Non-Small Cell Lung Carcinoma

Abstract

Lung cancer remains the most common malignancy and the most common cause of cancer mortality worldwide for both men and women. In 2008, an estimated 1.6 million new cases of lung cancer were diagnosed and an estimated 1.4 million deaths from lung cancer occurred. Nearly 85 % of lung cancers are diagnosed as Non- Small Cell Lung Cancer. The mortality from advanced stage Non-Small lung cancer is still high even with new therapeutic agents. The chemotherapy and palliative radiotherapy are the only treatment options at the advanced stage of the disease. Surgical resection and adjuvant chemotherapy is the mainstay of treatment at early stage disease and concomitant curative chemoradiotherapy is the recommended treatment modality in locally advanced stage. The neoadjuvant chemotherapy is shown to be useful for various types of cancer. The benefit of neoadjuvant chemotherapy in Non- Small cell lung cancer is being investigated in ongoing phase II and III trials.

Keywords: Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy, lung cancer.

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