Maintenance therapy for advanced non-small-cell lung cancer: a pilot study on patients' perceptions.

Introduction: Several randomized trials on maintenance therapy (MT) for metastatic non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) have demonstrated benefit in progression-free survival. More recently, a study with pemetrexed and one with erlotinib also showed significant gains in overall survival (OS). Yet, in this palliative treatment setting, the benefit has to be weighed against the potential burden of treatment, and thus patients' preferences should be taken into account.