Progress of clinical research on targeted therapy combined with thoracic radiotherapy for non-small-cell lung cancer

Abstract

The combination of radiotherapy and targeted therapy is an important approach in the application of targeted therapy in clinical practice, and represents an important opportunity for the development of radiotherapy itself. Numerous agents, including epidermal growth factor receptor, monoclonal antibodies, tyrosine kinase inhibitors, and antiangiogenic therapies, have been used for targeted therapy. A number of studies of radiotherapy combined with targeted therapy in non-small-cell lung carcinoma have been completed or are ongoing. This paper briefly summarizes the drugs involved and the important related clinical research, and indicates that considerable progress has been made with the joint efforts of the two disciplines. Many issues, including drug selection, identification of populations most likely to benefit, timing of administration of medication, and side effects of treatment require further investigation. However, further fundamental research and accumulation of clinical data will provide a more comprehensive understanding of these therapies. Targeted therapy in combination with radiotherapy has a bright future.

Keywords:

• non-small-cell lung carcinoma
• radiotherapy
• epidermal growth factor receptor
• monoclonal antibody
• tyrosine kinase inhibitors
• antiangiogenic therapies

Acknowledgments

This research was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (81301925).

Disclosure

The authors report no conflicts of interest in this work.