"My Patient Was Diagnosed With Nontargetable Advanced Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer. What Now?" Diagnosis and Initial Treatment Options for Newly Diagnosed Patients With Advanced NSCLC

Abstract

Although lung cancer remains the leading cause of cancer-related mortality in the United States and worldwide, the rate at which Americans are dying from lung cancer is declining. Improving survival can be explained, in large part, by a growing understanding of the heterogeneous biology of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) as well as recent successes of novel therapeutic strategies more effective and tolerable than platinum-based chemotherapy. We now recognize distinct subtypes of NSCLC, defined by molecular profiling and immunohistochemistry, with different treatment algorithms, including targeted small molecular inhibitors and immunotherapy for each. Both biomarker selection and preferred frontline strategies continue to evolve rapidly, making it difficult for many practitioners to keep up. In this review, we will first describe the recommended initial workup for a patient with advanced or metastatic NSCLC in 2018; next, we present an algorithm to aid oncologists in the selection of the most appropriate therapy for treatment-naive patients with NSCLC, and finally, we offer a look into future treatment options through a discussion of ongoing clinical trials.