The current treatment landscape in the UK for stage III NSCLC

Abstract

For stage III non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), approximately a third of patients survive up to 5 years, with decreasing 5-year survival rates for stage IIIB and stage IIIC disease. Although curable, stage III NSCLC encompasses a diverse range of disease presentation, with an equally complex range of multi-modal treatment options, including systemic and local therapies for distant and local disease control, respectively. This complexity results in a number of challenges for the multi-disciplinary team (MDT) in achieving optimal treatment outcomes for patients. As multi-modality treatment is the preferred treatment strategy for all stage III disease, the focus of this article is the key surgical, chemotherapy and radiotherapy clinical trials as well as guidelines that currently outline radical therapy options for patients with both potentially resectable and unresectable stage III NSCLC.

Fig. 1. 2017 treatment of stage IIIA and IIIB NSCLC in the UK.

This figure was created by the author from data published in the UK NLCA annual report 2018. adj adjuvant, BSC best supportive care, chemo chemotherapy, PI palliative intent, RT radiotherapy.