Treatment of Newly Diagnosed Stage IV, Relapsed, and Recurrent Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer

For information about the treatments listed below, see the Treatment Option Overview section.

Treatment of newly diagnosed stage IV, relapsed, and recurrent non-small cell lung cancer may include the following:

• Combination chemotherapy.
• Combination chemotherapy and targeted therapy with a monoclonal antibody, such as bevacizumab, cetuximab, or necitumumab.
• Combination chemotherapy followed by more chemotherapy as maintenance therapy to help keep cancer from progressing.
• Targeted therapy with an EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitor, such as osimertinib, dacomitinib, gefitinib, erlotinib, or afatinib.
• Targeted therapy with an ALK inhibitor, such as alectinib, lorlatinib, crizotinib, ceritinib, or brigatinib.
• Targeted therapy with a BRAF inhibitor or MEK inhibitor, such as dabrafenib or trametinib.
• Targeted therapy with crizotinib and entrectinib to stop proteins from being made by the ALK and ROS1 genes.
• Targeted therapy with a NTRK inhibitor, such as larotrectinib or entrectinib.
• Targeted therapy with a RET inhibitor, such as selpercatinib or pralsetinib.
• Targeted therapy with a MET inhibitor, such as tepotinib or capmatinib.
• Immunotherapy with an immune checkpoint inhibitor, such as pembrolizumab, cemiplimab, tremelimumab, or atezolizumab, with or without chemotherapy.
• Targeted therapy with an mTOR inhibitor, such as everolimus.
• Laser therapy and/or internal radiation therapy for tumors that are blocking the airways.
• External radiation therapy as palliative therapy, to relieve symptoms and improve the quality of life.
• Surgery to remove a second primary tumor.
• Surgery to remove cancer that has spread to the brain, followed by radiation therapy to the whole brain.
• Stereotactic radiosurgery for tumors that have spread to the brain and cannot be treated with surgery.
• A clinical trial of new drugs and combinations of treatments.

Use our clinical trial search to find NCI-supported cancer clinical trials that are accepting patients. You can search for trials based on the type of cancer, the age of the patient, and where the trials are being done. General information about clinical trials is also available.