Interestingly, the median survival of 38 months is longer than in most studies and might be accounted for by better staging and the elimination of patients with truly metastatic disease. Past data has shown that adjuvant radiation therapy in patients who have had complete resections of non-small cell lung cancers did not benefit from this modality and some studies have actually shown a detrimental effect of radiation. It is unlikely that this adversely affected the results. This advantage did not reach statistical significance. We frequently hesitate to report negative results and emphasize positive findings.
Good news is always easier to hear than bad news.
However, we must also know what does not work in order to avoid actually hurting or harming patients with ineffective treatments. Newer chemotherapeutic drugs seem to be making some inroads in the treatment of non-small cell lung cancer and the molecular biologists continue to come out with amazing information that will soon be translated into the clinical arena. I look forward to the day that we do have good adjuvant therapy for patients with this disease. When people react to a cancer diagnosis, they will often draw on the same defenses and emotional resources that they have used at other stressful times in their lives. Since patients with cancer vary widely in personality and life experience, they adapt differently to the many problems and concerns that a cancer diagnosis often brings.