Treating patients with advanced nonsmall cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is a daunting task but during recent years new options have emerged. By tailoring treatment using either information on histological subtypes of NSCLC or biomarkers it is now possible to improve outcome and maintain stable quality of life. We conducted a literature search of tailored treatment already implemented in advanced NSCLC in order to highlight the information required to decide on the optimal oncological treatment for individual patients.

16 studies were identified by literature review. Significantly improved outcome was demonstrated in patients with nonsquamous NSCLC treated with cisplatin/pemetrexed in pre-planned, exploratory and retrospective analysis from large-scale, randomised trials. Level 1 evidence showed significantly better progression-free survival when patients carrying an epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutation were treated with gefitinib compared to standard chemotherapy. Retrospective, unplanned analysis of excision repair cross complementation group 1 (ERCC1) and betatubulin III upregulation demonstrated poorer outcome in NSCLC patients treated with platinum-doublets and vinorelbine-based chemotherapy, respectively. In conclusion, tailoring treatment according to either histological subtype or EGFR mutation status in advanced NSCLC should today be part of daily practice based on current evidence.

Future biomarkers need optimisation of methodology and prospective validation before clinical implementation.

Positive modulation of a patient's immune system to produce antitumor immunity is an attractive strategy that may improve the dismal outcomes typically associated with non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Using methods that either augment specific antitumor immunity or positively influence the patient's immune system to allow the de novo generation of immunity to encompass current strategies used in recent clinical trials of NSCLC. Encouraging results of Phase II trials in antigen-specific immunotherapy have led to three subsequent Phase III trials, which are currently enrolling.

Results of these trials will improve our understanding of the role that immunotherapy plays in the treatment of NSCLC. Successful application of a humoral vaccine in Cuba led to its approval for the treatment of advanced NSCLC patients in that country. To date, trials involving nonspecific immunotherapeutic interventions have failed to improve outcomes in NSCLC and may indicate a need to combine them with antigen-specific vaccines.

Although these trials will greatly advance our knowledge of NSCLC immunotherapy, we believe truly efficacious immunotherapy may only result from implementation of strategies to both augment antitumor immunity and counteract tumor-mediated immunosuppression.

"Living with cancer" and symptom control are the features and advantages of integrative medicine in advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) treatment. However, with the current concept of response evaluation criteria by the WHO and RECIST, it is difficult to exhibit the above characteristics. Clinical benefit (CB) is designed as an endpoint recently widely understood and accepted in oncology clinical trials. With the review of its definition and development, we suggest CB to be used as an endpoint in advanced NSCLC treatment with integrative medicine.

CB should encompass two connotations: one is improved quality of life and symptom control and the other is disease control rate (DCR), including complete response (CR), partial response (PR), and stable disease (SD). We need to design randomized controlled trials (RCT) to investigate the interrelationship of CB rate and survival to provide high-grade evidence proving that advanced lung cancer patients could really benefit from integrative medicine treatment.

Data issued from the survival outcome in the ANITA trial are reported according to histology in observation (n=433) and adjuvant chemotherapy arms (n=407).

METHODS: In the ANITA trial, patients with resected stage IB, stage II and stage IIIA NSCLC were randomly assigned to vinorelbine plus cisplatin or to observation. In this retrospective analysis, Kaplan-Meier plots and life tables were used to describe survival within each treatment arm and each histological subgroup: observation adenocarcinoma, observation non-adenocarcinoma, chemotherapy adenocarcinoma, chemotherapy non-adenocarcinoma.

RESULTS: In the observation arm, adenocarcinoma appears to be a poor prognostic factor in patients with resected NSCLC with a median survival of 37.3 months and 45.5 months for non-adenocarcinoma. In the treatment arm, adenocarcinoma may be a predictive factor of efficacy for adjuvant chemotherapy with a larger benefit from adjuvant vinorelbine-cisplatin chemotherapy, even though other histological subtypes also benefit from this treatment. The absolute benefit on survival at 5-years of chemotherapy was 13.9% in adenocarcinoma and 5.8% in non-adenocarcinoma.

CONCLUSION: Efficacy of vinorelbine-cisplatin in adjuvant setting is independent from histology. The poor outcome of adenocarcinoma found in the observation arm was reversed by the positive impact of chemotherapy, possibly due to a higher chemosensitivity of this subtype.