Researchers this week reported brighter prospects for patients with lung cancer.

For the first time, a large clinical trial has shown that combination chemotherapy given after complete surgical removal of early-stage lung cancer significantly prolongs patients’ survival.

The study involved 482 patients with non-small-cell lung cancer, a common type of the disease. After surgery, those treated for 16 weeks with a combination of two chemotherapy drugs -vinorelbine and cisplatin - survived an average of 94 months.

That compares with 73 months for those given no chemotherapy after surgery, the current standard of care.

Sixty-nine percent of the vinorelbine/cisplatin group survived at least 5 years compared with 54 percent of the surgery-only group.

The time before recurrence of the cancer was also significantly longer in the vinorelbine/cisplatin group.

“This study should solidify opinion in favor of changing the standard of care for these patients,” Dr. Timothy L. Winton of the National Cancer Institute of Canada said in a statement at the American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting, where he presented the study.

“A 15 percent overall survival benefit 5 years after surgery and prolonged disease-free survival in this population are major advances,” he added.