Emerging Biomarkers in Personalized Therapy of Lung Cancer

The two clinically validated and Food and Drug Administration approved lung cancer predictive biomarkers (epidermal growth factor receptor mutations and anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) translocations) occur in only about 20 % of lung adenocarcinomas and acquired resistance develops to first generation drugs. Several other oncogenic drivers for lung adenocarcinoma have emerged as potentially druggable targets with new predictive biomarkers. Oncologists are requesting testing for ROS1 translocations which predict susceptibility to crizotinib, already approved for ALK positive lung cancers. Other potential biomarkers which are currently undergoing clinical trials are RET, MET, HER2 and BRAF. Detection of these biomarkers includes fluorescent in situ hybridization and/or reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (ROS1, RET, HER2), mutation analysis (BRAF) and immunohistochemistry (MET). Screening by immunohistochemistry may be useful for some biomarkers (ROS1, BRAF). Targeted next generation sequencing techniques may be useful as well. These five biomarkers are under consideration for inclusion in revised lung cancer biomarker guidelines by the College of American Pathologists, International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer and Association for Molecular Pathology.