Abstract
Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients with metastases limited in site and number, termed oligometastases, may represent a unique subpopulation of advanced NSCLC with improved prognosis. The optimal management of these patients remains unclear with the treatment approach currently undergoing a paradigm shift. The potential benefit of aggressive metastasis directed local treatment with surgery and/or radiotherapy (RT) in combination with systemic therapy is bolstered predominantly by retrospective analyses but also by a growing number of non-randomized prospective studies regarding the use of ablative RT techniques including stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT), alternatively termed stereotactic ablative radiotherapy (SABR), directed at the primary tumor (if present) and all metastatic sites. Long-term survival is possible in a subset of patients treated aggressively in this manner. The challenge for the clinical oncology community moving forward is appropriately selecting patients for this treatment approach based on clinical, imaging, and molecular features and increasing enrollment of patients to prospective clinical trials to more definitively determine the added benefit and appropriate timing of aggressive metastasis directed therapy in the oligometastatic setting.
Financial & competing interests disclosure
M Milano is study team member of NRG BR002 protocol. S Chmura is Principal investigator of NRG BR001 and NRG BR002 protocols. J Salama is study team member of NRG BR001 and NRG BR002 protocols. The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.