Cancer bronchique non à petites cellules : du traitement de la rechute aux traitements des rechutes

Second line treatments of non-small cell lung cancer are currently largely used because of their effectiveness in terms of survival and quality of life. Three drugs are currently licensed for this indication (docetaxel, pemetrexed and erlotinib), and possibly others will follow in the years to come. A true therapeutic strategy can thus be applied in advanced non-small cell lung cancer. The questions which need to be resolved are the optimum choice of treatments (mono-chemotherapy? Poly-chemotherapy? Therapeutic biological?) related to the still poorly understood “characteristics” of patients and tumours, as well as the specific question as to whether patients who have received adjuvant chemotherapy and then relapse should receive “first line” or “second line” therapy?