Advances in targeted therapy and immunotherapy for treatment of lung cancer

Abstract

Personalized therapy based on targetable genetic aberrations has become a standard therapy for cases of lung adenocarcinoma (LADC) harboring EGFR mutations and ALK fusions. The effects of such personalized therapy are significantly positive with a higher response rate and longer survival compared to conventional chemotherapy. Therefore, further identification of druggable genetic aberrations and the development of molecular targeting drugs for them are required. For LADC, several new targeted drugs against driver mutations in EGFR, KRAS, HER2, and BRAF; and driver fusions involving ALK, RET, and ROS1 have been developed, and clinical trials of these new targeted drugs are currently being conducted. On the other hand, personalized therapy against driver mutations has not well progressed in squamous cell lung cancer and small cell lung cancer. For those subtypes, immunotherapy might be an effective treatment strategy.