Lazarus response to treatment of patients with lung cancer and oncogenic mutations in the intensive care unit

Novel targeted therapy for patients with non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and oncogenic mutations along with poor performance status (PS) sometimes evokes a “Lazarus” response. Moreover, for critically ill patients with NSCLC and respiratory failure requiring mechanical ventilation (MV) in the intensive care unit (ICU), only a few case reports have demonstrated positive outcomes with targeted therapy. This perspective review describes in detail the most recently published data in order to highlight the findings and the main pitfalls of targeted therapy for patients with NSCLC in the ICU.