The management of the patient undergoing combined modality therapy for locally advanced non-small cell lung cancer

Multimodality management of locally advanced non-small cell lung cancer is commonplace. Locally advanced disease is defined as patients with stage IIIA, IIIB (without pleural effusions), and Pancoast tumors. Improvements in the median and landmark survival rates of patients have been accomplished by integration of chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and surgery. Although the optimal sequencing and number of modalities remains to be established, the safe treatment of patients requires cooperation of the specialties (joint clinics and tumor boards). The toxicities of chemoradiotherapy are esophagitis, pneumonitis, and myelosuppression. These complications are a function of the dose and fractionation scheme of radiotherapy and the dose, schedule, and specific chemotherapy agents used. The use of modern techniques, including three-dimensional conformal radiotherapy, limitation of field size, and aggressive treatment of symptoms reduces toxicity and the number of treatment breaks, and allows delivery of planned therapy in many patients. In appropriate patients, surgery may be successful after induction chemotherapy or chemoradiotherapy. In addition to exclusion of medically inappropriate patients, patients with persistent mediastinal adenopathy after induction therapy are not likely to benefit from resection. Therefore, mediastinal sampling must be repeated after chemoradiotherapy and before surgery.