Recent advances in non-small cell lung cancer biology and clinical management

Abstract

Despite advances in surgery, chemotherapy, and radiotherapy over the last decades, the death rate from lung cancer has remained largely unchanged, which is mainly due to metastatic disease. Because of the overall poor prognosis, new treatment strategies for lung cancer patients are urgently needed. In this review, we summarize recent advances in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) screening and diagnostic workup. We discuss current clinical management, highlighting stage-specific therapy approaches, chemotherapy options for advanced-stage patients, along with new agents such as vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) monoclonal antibodies, and the EGFR-targeting tyrosine kinase inhibitors erlotinib and gefitinib, and the anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) inhibitor crizotinib. Finally, we give an outlook into NSCLC disease biology, focusing on the importance of EGFR activating mutations and the role of the tumor-microenvironment. CXCR4 chemokine receptors expressed on NSCLC cells are a central pathway of NSCLC cross talk with the tumor microenvironment, as they induce activation, migration, and tumor cell adhesion to stromal cells, which in turn provides growth- and drug resistance-signals. Because of the growing evidence that the microenvironment in NSCLC promotes disease progression, we expect that selected molecular pathways of cross talk between NSCLC cells and their microenvironment will become alternative therapeutic targets in the near future.