Main Session II Trends and perspectives in multimodality therapy of locoregionally advanced non-small cell lung cancer

In recent years progress has been made in the therapy of patients with stage III non-small cell lung cancer. Induction chemotherapy and concomitant chemoradiotherapy have been proven to be superior to radiation therapy alone for unresectable stage disease. In direct comparisons of induction and concomitant chemoradiotherapy, the latter has been found to lead to higher median survival times, albeit at the cost of increased toxicity within the irradiated field. Additional trials have explored the administration of both induction chemotherapy and concomitant chemoradiotherapy in sequence and the integration of the taxanes, gemcitabine and vinorelbine and irinotecan into the multimodality therapy setting. These and other novel concepts are discussed. © 2001 Published by Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd.