Table 3 Guidelines for the management of advanced NSCLC as proposed by various academic societies and groups

Society	First-line therapy	Second-line therapy
Cancer Care Ontario Program, 2005 & 2010 [6]	Platinum-based doublet chemotherapy	Docetaxel (option: pemetrexed) followed by erlotinib
European Lung Cancer Working Party (ELCWP), 2006 [7]	Cisplatin-based chemotherapy with one of the regimens shown to be effective	Docetaxel (if not already administered as first-line treatment) given on a 3-weekly schedule at a dosage of 75 mg·m⁻²
American College of Chest Physicians (AACP), 2007 [8]	Platinum-based chemotherapy with a new single agent (ECOG PS 0-1)	Should be offered if good PS
American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), 2009 [9]	Two-drugs platinum-based combination regimen. Clinicians may consider the addition of bevacizumab (based on exclusion criteria of the registration trial) or cetuximab (in patients with an EGFR positive tumour as measured by immunohistochemistry	Docetaxel, erlotinib, gefitinib, or pemetrexed
German Respiratory Society and the German Cancer Society, 2010 [10]	Cisplatin-based combination chemotherapy	Docetaxel, pemetrexed (non-squamous carcinoma) and erlotinib