Unlocking Pandora's box: personalising cancer cell death in non-small cell lung cancer

Evasion of apoptosis is a hallmark of tumorigenesis and a recognised cause of multidrug resistance. Over the last decade, insights into how apoptosis might be exploited in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and how cancer therapeutics might be used to engage apoptotic signalling in a personalised manner have changed markedly. We are now in the wake of a paradigm shift in stratified therapeutic approaches related to NSCLC. At the heart of this shift in thinking is the emerging knowledge that even the most drug-resistant cancers exhibit a functional death pathway and, critically, that this pathway can be efficiently engaged, leading to clinical benefit. This review will summarise current knowledge of mitochondrial apoptotic pathway dysfunction in NSCLC and how the next generation of targeted therapeutics might be used to exploit deficiencies in apoptotic signalling in a personalised manner to improve clinical outcome and predict therapeutic benefit.