Combined modality therapy of non-small cell lung cancer.

Combined modality therapy of locally advanced non-small cell lung cancer has become a widely used means of treatment with several reports of benefit found in randomized phase III trials. Progress in this area may, however, be less substantive than it appears. Phase III trials routinely take the better part of a decade to initiate, complete, and analyze, and the flood of phase II trials are largely unable to be compared because of a widespread failure to systematically use readily available staging techniques.