Novel therapies for non-small cell lung cancer.

Donington, Jessica S; Koo, Chi Wan; Ballas, Marc S

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related death in the United States. Emerging technologies for the treatment of early-stage non-small cell lung cancer are currently focused on less invasive approaches to obtaining local tumor control, including minimally invasive and less radical resections, as well as image-guided ablative therapies. Targeted chemotherapeutic agents represent the newest area of treatment for advanced non-small cell lung cancer. These novel agents capitalize on our increased understanding of the diverse biology of the disease. Each of these advanced modalities works best for only a small subset of the population with lung cancer, and efficacious use is highly dependent on appropriate patient selection.