Metastatic lung cancer in the age of targeted therapy: improving long-term survival

Lin et al. recently estimated and identified factors associated with the 5-year survival rate among patients with epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR)-mutant metastatic lung adenocarcinoma treated with an EGFR-tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) (1). In order to appreciate the relevance of the results, we will briefly review the evolving lung cancer treatment landscape and previous survival estimates. We will then provide our perspective on the necessary next steps to maximize the population-wide survival of this historically recalcitrant cancer