EX20PLORE The new way for EGFR NSCLC patients

In Italy, lung cancer is the leading cause of death, accounting alone for around 20% of all cancer deaths and 28% of male deaths. Lung cancer is a biologically heterogeneous disease, therefore understanding its biology and the clinical behavior associated with the disease stands as crucial for the development of effective therapies. A better understanding of tumor biology has enabled the development of targeted therapies that brought light to the era of personalized medicine.
Over the past 20 years treatment has evolved from the empirical use of cytotoxic therapies towards effective and better tolerated regimens targeting specific molecular subtypes. Platinum-based chemotherapies have been standard therapies for patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) for many years. Treatment is recently shifting from the empirical use of cytotoxic therapy towards a more personalized therapy, using targeted therapies or inhibitors of the immune checkpoints, with patients treated according to the genetic alterations of the tumor and the immune susceptibility status of the disease defined on the basis of PD-L1.
The current clinical approach to lung cancer cannot therefore disregard an in-depth knowledge of the natural history and biological mechanisms that underlie the functioning of modern targeted therapies and immunological therapies.