A trial to find the best timing for radiotherapy and chemotherapy for advanced non small cell lung cancer (SOCCAR)

This trial looked at giving a course of radiotherapy and chemotherapy together, or one after the other, to see which might work best for non small cell lung cancer. This trial was supported by Cancer Research UK.

Non small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) that can’t be removed with surgery is often treated with chemotherapy and radiotherapy.

Some doctors thought that treatment may work better if patients had chemotherapy and radiotherapy at the same time (concurrently), rather than one after the other (sequentially). But this was a new way of treating NSCLC, and they were not sure how well it would work.

The aims of this trial were to collect information about the side effects of concurrent treatment and sequential treatment and to find out how well each treatment plan worked for non small cell lung cancer that could not be removed with surgery.