Beyond Conventional: The New Horizon of Targeted Therapy for the Treatment of Advanced Non Small Cell Lung Cancer

Alfredo Tartarone; Vittoria Lapadula; Concetta Di Micco; Gemma Rossi; Carlotta Ottanelli; Andrea Marini; Roberta Giorgione; Katia Ferrari; Martina Catalano; Luca Voltolini; Enrico Mini; Giandomenico Roviello

doi:10.3389/fonc.2021.632256

Beyond Conventional: The New Horizon of Targeted Therapy for the Treatment of Advanced Non Small Cell Lung Cancer

Front Oncol. 2021 May 21:11:632256. doi: 10.3389/fonc.2021.632256. eCollection 2021.

Affiliations

¹ Department of Onco-Hematology, Division of Medical Oncology IRCCS-CROB Referral Cancer Center of Basilicata, Rionero in Vulture, Italy.
² Division of Medical Oncology, IRCCS Casa Sollievo della Sofferenza, San Giovanni Rotondo, Italy.
³ School of Human Health Sciences, University of Florence, Florence, Italy.
⁴ Respiratory Medicine, Careggi University Hospital, Florence, Italy.
⁵ Thoracic Surgery Unit, Careggi University Hospital, Florence, Italy.
⁶ Department of Health Sciences, Section of Clinical Pharmacology and Oncology, University of Florence, Florence, Italy.

Abstract

In the last few years the advent of targeted therapies against oncogenic drivers significantly improved the survival of non small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients with a favourable toxicity profile. Therefore, genetic testing, including at least EGFR mutations and ALK/ROS1 rearrangements, should be performed in all NSCLC patients (in particular with adenocarcinoma) who received a diagnosis of advanced disease. This review focuses on novel druggable oncogenic drivers, such as MET exon 14 mutations/MET amplification, RET fusions, BRAF V600E mutations, KRAS G12C mutations, NTRK rearrangements, and HER2 alterations.

Keywords: MET; genetic testing; non small cell lung cancer; oncogenic drivers; targeted therapies.

Publication types

Review