Non-small cell lung cancer: early stages.

More than 170 000 new cases and 150 000 deaths have occurred in 2003 in US owing to lung cancer, which is the leading cancer death reason for men in US. Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) accounts for about 80% of all lung cancers [1, 2]. Despite the progress in imaging and diagnostic procedures, non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) usually presents as advanced (locally or more frequently disseminated), and a small part (around 30%) has to be considered early stage [1]. For early stage disease, surgery still remains the treatment choice, even if the majority of patients will undergo progression after complete tumor resection. In order to increase curable rate us such social disease, progresses in diagnosis technique and treatment approaches have been recently developed.