Early stage and locally advanced (non-metastatic) non-small-cell lung cancer: ESMO Clinical Practice Guidelines for diagnosis, treatment and follow-up.

Lung cancer represents the leading cause of cancer mortality worldwide, accounting for ∼1.2 million deaths each year. Improving survival in lung cancer is a major challenge for modern oncology considering that 5-year survival remains <15%, across all stages of disease and with <7% of patients alive 10 years after diagnosis. Because of the difficulties in significantly improving survival in locally advanced and metastatic non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC), diagnosis and treatment of early stages theoretically represent the most consistent possibility of modifying the outcome of NSCLC in terms of disease-free and overall survival.