Non-small-cell lung cancer: molecular targeted therapy and personalized medicine – drug resistance, mechanisms, and strategies

Marybeth Sechler,1,2 Amber D Cizmic,3 Sreedevi Avasarala,1 Michelle Van Scoyk,1 Christine Brzezinski,1 Nicole Kelley,1 Rama Kamesh Bikkavilli,1 Robert A Winn1–3 1Division of Pulmonary Sciences and Critical Care, 2Program in Cancer Biology, University of Colorado, Aurora, CO, USA; 3Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Denver, CO, USA Abstract: Targeted therapies for cancer bring the hope of specific treatment, providing high efficacy and in some cases lower toxicity than conventional treatment. Although targeted therapeutics have helped immensely in the treatment of several cancers, like chronic myelogenous leukemia, colon cancer, and breast cancer, the benefit of these agents in the treatment of lung cancer remains limited, in part due to the development of drug resistance. In this review, we discuss the mechanisms of drug resistance and the current strategies used to treat lung cancer. A better understanding of these drug-resistance mechanisms could potentially benefit from the development of a more robust personalized medicine approach for the treatment of lung cancer. Keywords: lung cancer, drug targets, personalized medicine, NSCLC