Improved overall survival following tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) treatment in NSCLC—are we making progress?

Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC; 80–85% of all lung cancers) continues to be one of the major causes of cancer related deaths around the world (1). The development of molecularly targeted therapies (small molecules and monoclonal antibodies) has, however, significantly improved outcomes in the metastatic setting for NSCLC patients harbouring activated oncogenes such as epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) and translocated anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) (2). By targeting the main pathways of NSCLC signal transduction, these drugs dramatically improved progression-free survival (PFS) and quality of life (QoL) in this highly selected subgroup of NSCLC patients sparing them from toxic chemotherapy approaches (del16) (3).