TY - JOUR
T1 - Surgical resection versus stereotactic body radiation therapy for stage I NSCLC
T2 - Can randomized trials provide the solution?
AU - Subramanian, Melanie P.
AU - Meyers, Bryan F.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2018 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.
PY - 2018/9/4
Y1 - 2018/9/4
N2 - Surgical resection has traditionally been considered the standard of care for patients with stage I non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). With the introduction of stereotactic radiation body therapy (SBRT), there is now a viable option for medically inoperable patients with stage I NSCLC. The effectiveness of SBRT in patients with stage I disease but at elevated surgical risk is unknown. Multiple randomized controlled trials (RCTs) have been attempted to compare surgical resection and SBRT in this population, but have been aborted due to poor patient enrollment. Despite these failures, there still remains a push for more RCTs. In this commentary, we review the challenges that RCTs face in their ability to appropriately compare these two therapies.
AB - Surgical resection has traditionally been considered the standard of care for patients with stage I non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). With the introduction of stereotactic radiation body therapy (SBRT), there is now a viable option for medically inoperable patients with stage I NSCLC. The effectiveness of SBRT in patients with stage I disease but at elevated surgical risk is unknown. Multiple randomized controlled trials (RCTs) have been attempted to compare surgical resection and SBRT in this population, but have been aborted due to poor patient enrollment. Despite these failures, there still remains a push for more RCTs. In this commentary, we review the challenges that RCTs face in their ability to appropriately compare these two therapies.
KW - Lobectomy
KW - NSCLC
KW - Randomized controlled trials
KW - SBRT
KW - Sublobar resection
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85053019751&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3390/cancers10090310
DO - 10.3390/cancers10090310
M3 - Article
C2 - 30181523
AN - SCOPUS:85053019751
SN - 2072-6694
VL - 10
JO - Cancers
JF - Cancers
IS - 9
M1 - 310
ER -