Patients with inoperable non-small-cell lung cancer who receive an high dose of chemotherapy initially, before their treatment begins, can expect an increase in overall survival, according to a new study out of M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston and published in the July issue of the International Journal of Radiation Oncology*Biology*Physics. When patients with NSCLC are not eligible for surgery, a combination of chemotherapy and radiation is suggested. NSCLC is the most common form of lung cancer in the U.S.
Patients who received this initial treatment, or induction therapy, saw an increase in overall survival of six months. The rates for distant metastasis-free survival were also better for the group that received the induction therapy, with a success rate of 42 percent versus 23 percent in the group that only received the chemoradiation therapy.
