The significant impact of chemotherapy in lung cancer

摘要

The reality of lung cancer treatment in clinical practice is caring for patients with advanced-stage disease. The median age of patients is approximately 70 years, and the list of comorbidities usually is extensive owing to the predominance of past or current smoking in this patient population.The vast majority of people with lung cancer have NSCLC. We have learned that this population harbors a myriad of molecular alterations, and ranks as one of the top malignancies in that respect. We also have learned that a growing list of targetable oncogenic drivers underlies the pathogenesis of disease in a proportion of lung cancer patients who are never smokers or former light smokers. These patients tend to have a lower level of "molecular mayhem" than those who are smokers.The use of targeted therapies in patients with oncogenic drivers has been one of the recent success stories in oncology, leading to a heightened level of enthusiasm for the discovery and development of novel targets and therapies.