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5 treatment settings, 3 with more than one named option. Each section lays out the options the standard of care names, what each is for, the trials behind them with their recorded results, the side effects and cautions on record, and questions to ask. Built from the cancer page's standard-of-care rows; nothing here is advice for your case.
Segmentectomy or lobectomy by video-assisted or robotic thoracoscopy with node dissection (CALGB 140503, JCOG0802); no systemic therapy; stereotactic radiotherapy if not fit for surgery.
Surgeons operate through small incisions using robotic arms with tremor-free precision and 3D vision.
Stereotactic body radiotherapy converges multiple beams with sub-millimetre accuracy to deliver tumour-destroying doses in one to five outpatient sessions, doing the job of surgery for inoperable early lung cancer and for metastases in liver, spine and brain. Tumour size and location limit its use, and late toxicity is a concern near the central airways.
Averages across everyone diagnosed, often years ago. A median is the middle of a group: half the people counted lived longer than the figure shown, and some lived far longer. Your stage, subtype, age, fitness and the treatment you receive matter more than the average, and the numbers are improving quickly.
Averages across everyone diagnosed, often years ago. A median is the middle of a group: half the people counted lived longer than the figure shown, and some lived far longer. Your stage, subtype, age, fitness and the treatment you receive matter more than the average, and the numbers are improving quickly.
Averages across everyone diagnosed, often years ago. A median is the middle of a group: half the people counted lived longer than the figure shown, and some lived far longer. Your stage, subtype, age, fitness and the treatment you receive matter more than the average, and the numbers are improving quickly.
Add these to your appointment list, or take the full question set for this cancer.
Neoadjuvant nivolumab plus platinum chemotherapy for three cycles (CheckMate 816) or perioperative pembrolizumab (KEYNOTE-671), durvalumab (AEGEAN) or nivolumab (CheckMate 77T) with chemotherapy before and immunotherapy for a year after surgery; or surgery first then adjuvant cisplatin doublet and atezolizumab or pembrolizumab if PD-L1-positive (IMpower010).
Nivolumab was the second PD-1 blocker and is often combined with ipilimumab. Long-term data show about half of advanced melanoma patients alive at 10 years on the combination.
Pembrolizumab is a PD-1 blocking antibody approved in more than 40 settings, from melanoma and lung cancer to the first tumour-agnostic approval for mismatch-repair-deficient tumours in 2017, and before and after surgery in triple-negative breast cancer. A subcutaneous form arrived in 2025, and it is the backbone partner for ADCs and personalised neoantigen vaccines.
A PD-L1 blocker that became standard after chemoradiation for stage III lung cancer, and now in bladder, biliary, and gastric cancers.
A PD-L1 blocker used in lung, liver, and bladder cancer. In 2026 it became the first drug approved based on a blood test showing leftover cancer after bladder surgery.
Cisplatin is the original platinum chemotherapy, discovered by accident in 1965; it cures testicular cancer and makes radiation work better in cervical and head and neck cancer.
Carboplatin is a platinum chemotherapy that crosslinks DNA; it is part of the standard pre-surgery regimen for triple-negative breast cancer.
Pemetrexed is the chemotherapy that, with a platinum drug, became the first approved treatment for mesothelioma in 2004, and is still the backbone today.
EFS HR 0.63; OS HR 0.72.
EFS HR 0.58; OS HR 0.72.
Perioperative durvalumab with neoadjuvant platinum chemotherapy improved event-free survival (hazard ratio 0.69, 95 percent confidence interval 0.55 to 0.88 at the second interim analysis) and pathological complete response in resectable stage II to IIIB(N2) non-small-cell lung cancer.
Averages across everyone diagnosed, often years ago. A median is the middle of a group: half the people counted lived longer than the figure shown, and some lived far longer. Your stage, subtype, age, fitness and the treatment you receive matter more than the average, and the numbers are improving quickly.
IMpower010: adjuvant atezolizumab after platinum chemotherapy improved disease-free survival in resected stage II to IIIA non-small-cell lung cancer, most in tumours with PD-L1 on 1 percent or more of tumour cells (hazard ratio 0.66); approved in the United States in October 2021 for that group.
| Side effect | Any grade | Grade 3+ |
|---|---|---|
| Colitis with ipilimumab (1+3 mg/kg) · Monotherapy pooled unless stated | 25% | 14.4% |
| Hepatitis with ipilimumab · Monotherapy pooled unless stated | 15% | 13.4% |
| Colitis · Monotherapy pooled unless stated | 2.9% | 1.7% |
| Hepatitis · Monotherapy pooled unless stated | 1.8% | 1.5% |
Rates from the label or pivotal trial as recorded on the product page; each grade 3+ figure links to its source.
| Side effect | Any grade | Grade 3+ |
|---|---|---|
| Hypothyroidism (immune-mediated) · Pooled monotherapy data, >2,800 patients | 8% | - |
| Pneumonitis (immune-mediated) · Pooled monotherapy data, >2,800 patients | 3.4% | - |
| Colitis (immune-mediated) · Pooled monotherapy data, >2,800 patients | 1.7% | - |
| Hepatitis (immune-mediated) · Pooled monotherapy data, >2,800 patients | 0.7% | - |
Rates from the label or pivotal trial as recorded on the product page; each grade 3+ figure links to its source.
| Side effect | Any grade | Grade 3+ |
|---|---|---|
| Pneumonitis (any cause, PACIFIC) · vs 12.8% placebo; 1.1% fatal | 18.3% | - |
Rates from the label or pivotal trial as recorded on the product page; each grade 3+ figure links to its source.
| Side effect | Any grade | Grade 3+ |
|---|---|---|
| Pneumonitis (immune-mediated) · Monotherapy pooled | 3% | 0.8% |
| Hepatitis (immune-mediated) · Monotherapy pooled | 1.8% | 0.7% |
| Colitis (immune-mediated) · Monotherapy pooled | 1% | 0.5% |
| Hypothyroidism (immune-mediated) · Monotherapy pooled | 4.9% | 0.2% |
Rates from the label or pivotal trial as recorded on the product page; each grade 3+ figure links to its source.
Add these to your appointment list, or take the full question set for this cancer.
Adjuvant platinum chemotherapy where indicated, then three years of osimertinib (ADAURA).
Osimertinib (Tagrisso) is the standard pill for EGFR-mutant lung cancer, now also given after surgery and with chemotherapy or after chemoradiation.
OS HR 0.49.
| Side effect | Any grade | Grade 3+ |
|---|---|---|
| Decreased appetite · FLAURA | 20% | 2.5% |
| Diarrhoea · FLAURA | 58% | 2.2% |
| Fatigue · FLAURA | 21% | 1.4% |
| Rash · FLAURA | 58% | 1.1% |
Rates from the label or pivotal trial as recorded on the product page; each grade 3+ figure links to its source.
Add these to your appointment list, or take the full question set for this cancer.
Two years of adjuvant alectinib in place of chemotherapy (ALINA).
Alectinib is a well-tolerated ALK pill, standard first line for years and, since 2024, the first targeted therapy given after surgery for ALK-positive lung cancer.
Add these to your appointment list, or take the full question set for this cancer.
PET-CT and mediastinal sampling before surgery; CT every six months for two years then yearly; circulating tumour DNA surveillance in trials.
PET and CT in one machine, so hot spots on the PET are pinned to exact locations on the CT.
A CT scan is a fast 3D X-ray that shows the size and shape of tumours and whether they have spread.
An ultra-sensitive blood test after surgery that detects leftover cancer months before a scan would.
No trial record is attached to this row yet. The trials tab lists what is recruiting and the landmark trials for this cancer.
Add these to your appointment list, or take the full question set for this cancer.