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Treatment Options for Stages IIIB and IIIC NSCLC
Source: Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer Treatment (PDQ®)–Health Professional Version, National Cancer Institute.
Source updated: May 15, 2025 · Captured 2026-09-09.
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Context: Treatment of Stages IIIB and IIIC NSCLC
Treatment options for stages IIIB NSCLC and IIIC NSCLC include:
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Sequential or concurrent chemotherapy and radiation therapy.
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Sequential or concurrent chemotherapy and radiation therapy.
Radiation therapy dose escalation for concurrent chemoradiation.
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Sequential or concurrent chemotherapy and radiation therapy.
Systemic consolidation therapy before or after concurrent chemoradiation therapy.
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Sequential or concurrent chemotherapy and radiation therapy. › Systemic consolidation therapy before or after concurrent chemoradiation therapy.
Consolidation immunotherapy.
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Sequential or concurrent chemotherapy and radiation therapy. › Systemic consolidation therapy before or after concurrent chemoradiation therapy.
Other systemic consolidation therapies.
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Radiation therapy alone.
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Radiation therapy alone.
For treatment of locally advanced unresectable tumor in patients who are not candidates for chemotherapy.
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Radiation therapy alone.
For patients requiring palliative treatment.
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New fractionation schedules (under clinical evaluation).
Radiosensitizers (NCT02186847) (under clinical evaluation).
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Combined-modality approaches (under clinical evaluation).
Incorporation of targeted agents into combined modality therapy in patients with EGFR variants or ALK translocations (RTOG-1306 [NCT01822496]; 11-464 [NCT01553942]) (under clinical evaluation).
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Adaptive radiation therapy using positron emission tomography–based response assessment during treatment (RTOG-1106/ACRIN-6697) (under clinical evaluation).
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In general, patients with stages IIIB and IIIC NSCLC do not benefit from surgery alone and are best managed by initial chemotherapy, chemotherapy plus radiation therapy, or radiation therapy alone, depending on:
Sites of tumor involvement.
The patient's performance status.
Most patients with excellent performance status are candidates for combined-modality chemotherapy and radiation therapy with the following exceptions:
Selected patients with T4, N0 disease may be treated with combined-modality therapy and surgery similar to patients with superior sulcus tumors.
Patients with stages IIIB or IIIC NSCLC are candidates for clinical trials, which may lead to improvement in the control of disease.
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Studies cited in this source section
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Preserved source evidence · Not medical advice