Targeting signaling pathways in lung cancer therapy

Understanding the oncogenic signaling pathways and their underlying mechanisms may lead to new opportunities for developing therapeutic strategies for cancer treatment. In recent years, some molecular targeted agents have emerged for the inhibition of specific targets in signaling pathways. There are also studies examining whether the combination of these pathway-based therapeutics with standard therapies can produce synergistic effects in lung cancer treatment. On the other hand, it has been reported that some predictive biomarkers have been identified for the triage of patients most likely to benefit from these targeted drugs. This article discusses the features and targeting of some dysregulated signaling pathways in lung cancer therapy intending to provide up-to-date information of the recent discoveries in lung cancer signaling pathway research and the most promising developments of pathway-based therapies, which may lead to substantial improvements for the clinical treatment of lung cancer.