A pharmacological exploration of targeted drug therapy in non-small cell lung cancer

Lung cancer is the prime cause of cancer-related deaths globally, with a contribution of 85% from non-small cell lung cancer. Before a few decades back, conventional chemotherapy was the most chosen treatment option for NSCLC but with side effects. Now, the treatment approaches have shifted to a new trend, targeted therapy, and a better treatment strategy with minimal side effects compared to chemotherapy. Advances in technologies and understanding the pathways lead to the discovery of new targets and through which it is possible to improve treatment outcomes and patient compliance. Unlike chemotherapy, targeted therapy focuses on the tumor cells and does not produce toxicity to healthy cells. The last two decades were very crucial in the development of many small molecules with the capability to target-specific proteins or genes in the disease progression pathway. Although the targeted therapy approach was a gemstone with many successful drugs for the treatment of NSCLC, various resistance mechanisms and activation of bypass signaling pathways put many of these drugs in the trash. In this review, we will discuss the major targeted proteins involved in NSCLC as well as the inhibitor drugs developed to target them for now and along with the future directions.