Molecular Testing of Lung Cancers.

Shim HS1, Choi YL2, Kim L3, Chang S4, Kim WS5, Roh MS6, Kim TJ7, Ha SY8, Chung JH9, Jang SJ10, Lee GK11; Korean Cardiopulmonary Pathology Study Group; Korean Molecular Pathology Study Group.

Author information

Abstract

Targeted therapies guided by molecular diagnostics have become a standard treatment of lung cancer. Epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutations and anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) rearrangements are currently used as the best predictive biomarkers for EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitors and ALK inhibitors, respectively. Besides EGFR and ALK, the list of druggable genetic alterations has been growing, including ROS1 rearrangements, RET rearrangements, and MET alterations. In this situation, pathologists should carefully manage clinical samples for molecular testing and should do their best to quickly and accurately identify patients who will benefit from precision therapeutics. Here, we grouped molecular biomarkers of lung cancers into three categories-mutations, gene rearrangements, and amplifications-and propose expanded guidelines on molecular testing of lung cancers.