A trial looking at surgery or radiotherapy after chemotherapy for non small cell lung cancer (EORTC 08941)

Cancer type:

Lung cancer

Non small cell lung cancer

Status:

Results

Phase:

Phase 3

This trial compared radiotherapy with surgery after chemotherapy for people with stage 3A non small cell lung cancer.

Doctors usually treat stage 3A non small cell lung cancer with surgery or radiotherapy, and sometimes chemotherapy. When this trial was done, doctors wanted to see if surgery after chemotherapy worked better than radiotherapy after chemotherapy for this group of patients.

The aim of the trial was to compare radiotherapy with surgery after chemotherapy.

Summary of results

The researchers found that surgery after chemotherapy was not better than radiotherapy after chemotherapy for people with non small cell lung cancer.

This trial recruited 582 people with stage 3A non small cell lung cancer. Everybody had up to 3 cycles of treatment with a ‘platinum’ chemotherapy drug such as carboplatin or cisplatin.

The chemotherapy worked in around 6 out of 10 people (61%). This group of patients were then divided into 2 treatment groups

Half had radiotherapy
Half had surgery

The trial team analysed the results in 2005. After an average follow up of 6 years, they looked at both groups to see how long people lived and how many had cancer that had continued to grow. They found no difference between the people who had surgery and the people who had radiotherapy.

We have based this summary on information from the team who ran the trial. The information they sent us has been reviewed by independent specialists (peer reviewed Open a glossary item ) and published in a medical journal. The figures we quote above were provided by the trial team. We have not analysed the data ourselves.