Tyrosine kinase inhibitors: new molecules in non-small cell lung cancer (EGFR AND ALK)

Abstract

Lung cancer is a tumor pathology that includes a group of neoplasms with different biological characteristics, which determine the course of the disease and the potential treatment response depending on the subtype diagnosed. Non-small lung carcinoma corresponds to 85 % of all lung cancers. Adenocarcinoma is the most common histologic subtype of this group. In the United States approximately 130,000 new cases a year are diagnosed and in the world around a million. Adenocarcinoma is the most likely subtype, with possible molecular alterations (EGFR mutations and translocations in ALK), which are a therapeutic target. Knowledge of the molecular profile of the tumor and its biology has led us to identify therapeutic targets as protein tyrosine kinase, whose inhibition have demonstrated impact in terms of survival and quality of life for patients with these molecular alterations. However, the complex biology of non-small cell lung carcinoma gives the malignant cell the ability to generate mechanisms of resistance to these drugs and has forced us to extend the studies to control the disease by blocking these mechanisms.