Perioperative outcomes and lymph node assessment after induction therapy in patients with clinical N1 or N2 non-small cell lung cancer

Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) represents a diverse group of tumor histologies, including squamous cell carcinoma, adenocarcinoma, and large-cell neuroendocrine carcinoma. Multiple trials have been conducted to determine the role and safety of induction chemotherapy (ICTx) with or without radiation in patients with resectable stage-2 or stage-3 NSCLC. While these trials tend to agree on the safety of induction therapy, surgery in addition to ICTx with or without radiation therapy (RT) in resectable lymph node (LN)-positive lung cancers has only relatively recently been shown to provide an overall survival benefit (1-5)