Recent advances in managing non-small-cell lung cancer: 4. Chemotherapy of metastatic cancer.

Chemotherapy has been shown to prolong survival and to be cost effective in the palliative treatment of non-small-cell lung cancer. A meta-analysis of 11 randomised trials has found a small benefit from combination chemotherapy in advanced NSCLC, increasing one-year survival rates from 5% to 15%. New combination regimens, especially carboplatin-paclitaxel, show higher response rates in selected patients, and promise improved survival rates, but this has yet to be confirmed in randomised trials.