From targets to targeted therapies and molecular profiling in non-small cell lung carcinoma.

ABSTRACT: Although tumor molecular-profile-directed therapy appears promising in early clinical studies, there are many practical challenges to its successful clinical application in non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). These challenges may be broadly classified as those relating to tumor (heterogeneity), tissue (acquisition and processing), testing (assays for molecular profiling) and trials (clinical evaluation of molecular markers and drugs). Strategies to overcome these challenges include (i) understanding the biological basis of tumor heterogeneity and of carcinogenesis in the large subset of patients with no currently evident driver events; (ii) technological advances in minimally invasive acquisition of tumor and next-generation sequencing (NGS) which would enable single-platform analysis of m

SUBMITTER: Thomas A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3574546 | biostudies-literature | 2013 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature