‏Multimodality Therapy and the Role of Surgery for Small Cell Lung Cancer

Abstract

This study aimed at exploring the multimodality therapy and the role of surgery for small cell lung cancer in all its stages. The researchers proceeded to a review of the Medline PUBMED (January 1980 to Week 1, January 2016) and EMBASE (January 1980 to Week 1, January 2016) literature focusing on retrospective studies where the impact of surgery on survival was evaluated as a stage dependent event. Studies reporting survival rates less than 5 years were excluded. Bibliographies, reference lists of identified studies and review articles were hand-searched.And the study concluded that since a control randomized trial between chemo radiotherapy and primary surgery is difficult to be obtained among patients with limited SCLC, the question how to best integrate surgery into a multimodality approach treatment will remain unclear. We still need to further define and clarify our treatment strategy.