Adjuvant therapy for resected early-stage small-cell lung cancer: is now time to rethink about that?

Small-cell lung cancer (SCLC) has historically been considered a highly chemo-radiosensitive malignancy, rarely susceptible of surgical resection due to advanced stage presentation with bulky nodal disease and frequent systemic involvement. Actually, surgical series documented SCLC in just 2–3% of patients (1) and, although several randomized trials contributed to define the management of extensive and limited stage SCLC, very few data are available for the early stage, possibly resectable, disease.