Advances in the treatment of non-small cell lung cancer

While there have been advances in the treatment of lung cancer, they have been marginal in comparison with recent advances in the chemotherapy and molecularly targeted treatment of breast cancer, colorectal cancer and genitourinary cancer. Lung cancer is an extremely difficult disease to treat, and to obtain positive results and to develop new standard treatment. The results of clinical trial on gefitinib and erlotinib suggest that the evaluation of molecular target drugs seems to be quite difficult in unselected patient population and may be different from cytotoxic drugs. We need to find out specific molecular biomarkers for each drug. With global studies in view, it will be essential to obtain even more significant results by sophisticated clinical trials in selected patient populations and contribute to improving the treatment outcome of lung cancer patients. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.