The lesson learned from figitumumab clinical program and the hope for better results in squamous lung cancer

In recent years, therapeutic advances for patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) have been substantially limited to non-squamous histology, while the treatment of patients with squamous cell carcinoma of the lung remained unchanged during the last ten years. Patients with squamous cell carcinoma of the lung are neither eligible for treatment with pemetrexed (due to the qualitative interaction between its efficacy and histology, being the drug more effective in non-squamous tumors), nor for the monoclonal anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) antibody bevacizumab (due to safety reasons). Furthermore, in clinical practice, no molecularly targeted agents have been specifically successful for patients with squamous tumors, because epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) sensitizing mutations and anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) rearrangements, as well as the use of the respective inhibitors, are virtually limited to non-squamous tumours.