Lung cancer is a complex disease composed of diverse histological and molecular types with clinical relevance. The advent of large-scale molecular profiling has been helpful to identify novel molecular targets that can be applied to the treatment of particular lung cancer patients and has helped to reshape the pathological classification of lung cancer.Based on main histotype, prognostic, and therapeutic implications, lung cancers are divided in two main groups: small-cell carcinoma (SCLC, 13 % of the cases) and non-small-cell carcinoma (NSCLC, 83 % of the cases) NSCLC can be divided into adenocarcinoma (ADC) and its variants, squamous cell carcinoma(SqCC), and large-cell lung carcinoma (LCLC).
At present, the proportion of patients with lung adenocarcinomas that harbor an EGFR, ALK,ROS1 or B-Raf Proto-Oncogene, Serine/Threonine kinase (BRAF) gene alteration benefits the most. Emerging further targeted therapies for lung adenocarcinomas are directed at HER2, MET, RET and NTRK1 gene aberrations. Squamous cell carcinomas and SCLC exhibit a mutation spectrum different from adenocarcinomas and mutation targeted therapies for both tumor entities have not yet matured into approved treatments.

References

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