Customizing chemotherapy in non-small cell lung cancer: the promise is still unmet

Advanced/metastatic non-small cell lung carcinoma (NSCLC) is a histologically diverse group of tumors that until recently has been treated homogeneously. Despite the fact that pathologists recognized major classes of squamous, adenocarcinoma, and large cell carcinoma, with subclasses and variants to ensure accurate diagnosis, to identify rare subtypes this had not influenced the clinical decisions’ making. For several years this heterogeneous group of diseases was treated as one entity with combinations of “third generation” cytotoxic agents, such as taxanes, vinorelbine and gemcitabine with cis-platin, giving as result, in phase III clinical trials, a median survival time to 8-11 months