Is tumor location an independent prognostic factor in locally advanced non-small cell lung cancer treated with trimodality therapy?

To improve the prognosis of patients with locally advanced (LA) non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), it is necessary to control local disease and to decrease relapse from distant disease by combining systemic chemotherapy with surgery and/or radiotherapy. Since 1990s, induction therapy with chemotherapy or chemoradiotherapy (CRT) followed by surgery has been used for clinical (c) Stage IIIA-N2 NSCLC to downstage tumors, to render them completely resectable, and to possibly eradicate lymph node metastasis in the mediastinum (1). To further improve the outcome of induction therapy, prognostic factors for this treatment setting needed to be identified. The histological response of resected specimens has been reported to be a prognostic factor for induction therapy followed by surgery (2,3).