Treatment of Stage IV Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer

Lung cancer continues to be a major health problem in the United States and throughout the world. It is the leading cause of cancer deaths in both men and women in the United States (1). The majority of lung-cancer patients (84%) will have non-small-cell histology (2) which primarily consists of adenocarcinoma, squamous-cell carcinoma (SCC), and large-cell carcinoma (LCC). Unfortunately, there is no effective screening procedure for this disease, and the majority of patients (70%) present with disease that is too advanced to consider curative surgical treatment (3). With an overall cure rate of 14%, more than 80% of nonsmall-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients are potential candidates for systemic therapy (1).