Utility of stereotactic ablative radiotherapy/stereotactic body radiation therapy in the setting of oligometastatic non-small cell lung cancer

Oligometastatic disease treatment has become one of the highlights of radiation treatment in recent years. Phase II study results from UT Southwestern published in September 2017 in JAMA Oncol showed a near threefold benefit to progression-free survival favoring local ablative radiation therapy, leading to a stopping in accrual earlier than anticipated (1). The study directly compared stereotactic ablative radiotherapy (SABR), also known as stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT), with maintenance chemotherapy versus maintenance chemotherapy alone, both arms after receiving induction chemotherapy. The study population was limited to patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), including up to five metastatic lesions with no targetable mutations and no disease progression after induction chemotherapy.