Impact of chemotherapy on survival in locally advanced non-small cell lung cancer: the Gustave-Roussy experience

The high local and distant recurrence rate after thoracic radiation deserves the development of new strategies to improve the outcome of patients with Stage III non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). The addition of chemotherapy (CT) to radiotherapy has seen a decrease in the metastasis rate in some controlled studies with a favorable impact on overall survival. However, the optimal schedule of both modalities remains to be defined. The persistent poor local control in these studies underestimates the real impact of chemotherapy on patients' outcome and calls for new investigational approaches.