The Treatment of Patients with Stage IIIA Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer From N2 Disease: Who Returns to the Surgical Arena and Who Survives

Only 37% of patients with favorable, nonbulky, biopsy-proven N2 disease actually complete their neoadjuvant therapy, undergo restaging, and then return for attempted resection. Only 28% undergo complete resection. However, in this highly selected subset of patients, the 5-year survival is 47% or better if partial or complete pathologic response is achieved. Therefore, surgical resection remains a viable treatment for selected patients with favorable N2 NSCLC.