Preoperative and adjuvant chemotherapy in locally advanced non-small cell lung cancer.

The continued favorable results with surgery in early stage lung cancer have led many investigators to use radiation and chemotherapy to reduce the size of unresectable tumors either before or after definitive surgery. Although earlier results with both radiation and chemotherapy have been poor, the newer cisplatin-containing combination chemotherapy regimens have yielded decreased local recurrence rates when used postoperatively following a complete resection and have produced increased complete resection rates when given preoperatively to patients with locally advanced and unresectable non-small cell lung cancer at diagnosis.