Radiochemotherapy in special populations with limited-disease small-cell lung cancer and locally advanced non-small-cell lung cancer

Abstract

SUMMARY The evidence to date confirms that concurrent radiochemotherapy (RT–ChT) is the treatment of choice in small-cell lung cancer and locally advanced non-small-cell lung cancer. But these patients require a good performance status and an interdisciplinary group of clinicians, which is hard to find at some facilities around the world. Socioeconomic differences worldwide, inadequate tolerance to RT–ChT, tobacco comorbidities, the high percentage of elderly patients and their low level of recruitment in clinical trials could explain, in part, the reason why lung cancer still remains the leading cause of cancer-related death around the world. This review focuses on RT–ChT in a special population of eldery, comorbid patients and populations with limited resources from developing countries with locally advanced non-small-cell lung cancer and limited-disease small-cell lung cancer.