Complex decisions for first-line and maintenance treatment of advanced wild-type non-small cell lung cancer.

ABSTRACT: Until recently, the first-line treatment of advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) required minimal clinical decision making. Patients who were eligible for chemotherapy received a platinum-based doublet, and 5-year survival rates were poor. With the advent of molecularly targeted agents and better tolerated chemotherapies--namely, bevacizumab, erlotinib, and pemetrexed--new therapeutic opportunities have emerged. Some of the strategies that have proven to be successful for the treatment of patients with NSCLC are targeting of the vascular endothelial growth factor, use of maintenance chemotherapy for patients without progression of disease after initial therapy, and tailoring of cytotoxic agents specific to the histology of an individual patient's cancer. Each approach has been indep

SUBMITTER: Gentzler RD 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4350796 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature