Surgery is the treatment of choice for non-small cell lung carcinoma (NSCLC) stage I and II. However, adjuvant or neoadjuvant chemotherapy may prove to be of benefit for stages IB and II. Treatment of non-small cell lung carcinoma stage IIIA remains controversial. Recently, neoadjuvant chemotherapy has shown excellent results in patients with metastases to mediastinal lymph nodes discovered at mediastinoscopy and, therefore, seems to be the treatment of choice for these patients. Patients with non-small cell lung carcinoma stage IIIB and IV may benefit from surgery in rare and extremely well selected cases.