Definitive radiation for early stage lung cancer: who is medically inoperable?

In a recently published paper at the International Journal of Radiation Oncology, Biology, and Physics (1), the authors report a post-hoc analysis of a cohort of early lung cancer cases drawn from the International Early Lung Cancer Action Program database (2). The purpose of the study is to compare the characteristics and outcomes of patients diagnosed of clinical stage I non-small cell lung carcinoma (NSCLC) treated with definitive radiation therapy (RT) or surgical resection.