Personalized medicine in lung cancer

© 2017 Pan Stanford Publishing Pte. Ltd. Lung cancer remains the leading cause of cancer-related death worldwide. 1 Most non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients are diagnosed at advanced stages, when chemotherapy is generally considered palliative treatment. In recent years, such treatment has proved not only to prolong survival but also to improve quality of life (including reduction of disease-related symptoms) for these patients. 2 Even today, after all the advances in therapeutic oncology, failure to therapy and sometimes extensive side effects remain a challenge. Due to growing knowledge, the generalized, non-individualized, mechanistic use of very expensive treatments is 16becoming less acceptable over time. The pursuit of specific targets as an effort to personalize treatment is the preferred therapeutic approach (Fig. 2.1). Figure 2.1 Personalized treatment approach.