Chemotherapy can provide good palliation and occasional cure of SCLC.

There is no curative chemotherapy treatment of NSCLC at present.

Pre- operative chemotherapy before attempts at surgical resection of advanced stage NSCLC, and post-operative chemotherapy are experimental treatments, whose value is unproven at this time.

Chemotherapy alone, or in combination with radiation therapy provides a small advantage over symptomatic treatment alone in patients with advanced stage NSCLC.

Chemotherapy added to radiation therapy has a small advantage in survival over radiation therapy alone in patients with locally advanced NSCLC.

Chemotherapy in selected patients may provide an advantage in quality of life over best supportive care alone.

There are a number of new drugs that are currently in research clinical trials to see if they will provide improved efficacy and survival for chemotherapy treatment of lung cancer. Information on some of these new drugs can be found at the following web sites.