Chemotherapy plus adjuvant surgery for local small cell lung cancer.

Eight patients with local Stage II (T2N1) and III (T3N0, T3N1, T2N2) small cell lung cancer received combination chemotherapy prior to elective surgery to assess the effectiveness of such a regimen in improving operability, preventing local relapse and extending survival. The regimen was well tolerated and prevented local relapse. However, the median time to recurrence of disease was 10 months and the median survival time 13 months, results which are similar to those achieved with chemotherapy and radiotherapy. Distant metastases, particularly in the brain, occurred predictably indicating that successful adjuvant surgery, despite preventing local relapse, may not afford additional survival benefit with currently available drug regimens.