| Popis: |
The TNM staging classification is the strongest determinate of outcome in patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC); as a result, it is used to guide treatment decisions (see Chap. 16). Only those patients who undergo complete resection or are treated aggressively with combined modality therapy have the potential for long-term survival. However, even with stage IA tumors, the 5-year survival rate after resection is only 67% (Mountain 1997; Kwiatkowski et al. 1998), indicating that a significant proportion of patients with resectable disease have virulent tumors. The range of survival potentials within each stage underscores the heterogeneous nature of the disease. This has led to the study of other prognostic variables that might complement stage, and to a search for tissue-based, as well as noninvasive, methods for better predicting prognosis and guiding treatment choice (Pugsley et al. 2002; Sorensen 1994).By refining the prognostic assessment of a given patient within (or potentially across) stage subgroups, a better tailored therapy might be feasible. |
