Neoadjuvant therapy for non-small cell lung cancer and esophageal cancer

Abstract

As the major malignant tumors in the chest, non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and esophageal cancer (EC) bring huge health burden to human beings worldwide. Currently, surgery is still the mainstay for comprehensive treatment for NSCLC and EC, but the prognosis is still poor as the results of cancer recurrence and distant metastasis. Neoadjuvant therapy refers to a single or combined treatment before surgery, aiming to improve the therapeutic effects of the traditional therapies. Unfortunately, the clinical outcomes and effects of neoadjuvant therapy are still controversial due to its apparent advantages and disadvantages, and different patients may respond differentially to the same scheme of neoadjuvant therapy, which makes it urgent and necessary to develop personalized scheme of neoadjuvant therapy for different individuals. Therefore, this review summarizes the novel schemes and strategies of neoadjuvant therapy, which may help to significantly improve of life quality of patients suffering from chest-related malignancies.