[Molecular diagnosis of lung cancer in association with treatment of choice].

Recent advances in lung cancer research have enabled significant progress in our understanding of the molecular pathogenesis and treatment for lung cancer. For example, EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitors have been developed, and a subset of patients show marked therapeutic responses to this treatment. Subsequently, this super-response was revealed to be associated with an EGFR mutation that was identified in 2005. Currently, EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitors are available for first-line treatments of patients with advanced non-small-cell lung cancer when the tumor is positive for an EGFR mutation. More recently, similar marked responses to an ALK inhibitor in patients with ALK fusion lung cancers were demonstrated. In this article, we review such recent advances in lung cancer, focusing on EGFR mutation and ALK fusion..