First-line therapeutic options for advanced non-small-cell lung cancer in the molecular medicine era.

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related mortality worldwide in both sexes, expected to account, in the near future, for more than 30% of all cancer-related deaths. Recently, improvements in the systemic therapy of non-small-cell lung cancer according to histology and tumor molecular characteristics led to a progressive prolongation of survival, more clinically meaningful in selected groups of patients with tumors harboring specific genomic alterations. As the search for individualized therapeutic approaches could represent one of the potential ways to improve survival expectancy of non-small-cell lung cancer patients with advanced disease stage, the aim of this review is to discuss how currently to select the best front-line therapeutic strategy.