Results of clinical trials for locally advanced and metastatic nonsmall-cell lung cancer

Chemotherapy in nonsmall-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is not just a reality but has resulted in important improvements in quality of life and survival for patients with locally advanced and metastatic NSCLC. For patients with stage IV NSCLC, platinum-based 2-drug combinations are superior to single-agent therapy and have a superior therapeutic index than 3-drug combinations. Concurrent chemoradiation has become the standard of care for patients with locally advanced NSCLC. The addition of consolidation chemotherapy following definitive chemoradiation appears to improve median survival. The era of molecularly targeted therapies for NSCLC is here. Early results with some of the targeted agents studied for the treatment of NSCLC have generated a great deal of excitement. In this article, we review the results of recent clinical trials in locally advanced and metastatic NSCLC.