Survey on the treatment of non-small-cell lung cancer in Italy

Background: The results of the Italian part of an international survey on therapeutic preferences and opinions about prognosis of patients affected by non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) are shown. Patients and methods. The investigation was conducted by the means of a postal questionnaire aiming to gather information on preferences about treatment and beliefs about survival of three hypothetical patients affected by NSCLC in different stages (T2N1M0, T2N3M0, M-1); three sources of Italian physicians potentially treating patients affected by NSCLC were the target population: participants in the Adjuvant Lung Project Italy (Alpi) trial, a 20% random sample of the Italian Medical Oncology Association (AIOM) and representatives of almost all the pneumology wards in Italy. Results: Overall, there were 287 evaluable responses, 89% of respondents were males, mean age was 46 years, years from graduation 21 and charge of patients per clinician 82. The most important result is the wide variation of answers both about therapy and prognosis. Expectations about size of prognosis improvement with a new chemotherapy seem to be excessive. Conclusions: The results are discussed in relation to the twin surveys of Canada and England and Wales and to the meta-analyses on the efficacy of chemotherapy as an adjunct to primary treatment and on postoperative radiotherapy in nonsmall-cell lung cancer.