Anti-angiogenic therapy in nonsquamous non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) with tyrosine kinase inhibition (TKI) that targets the VEGF receptor (VEGFR): perspective on phase III clinical trials

Annually, there are over 200,000 lung cancer diagnoses in the United States (1). Only about 15% of patients are diagnosed with early stage disease (1). The prognosis of those with advanced disease, such as stage IIIB or stage IV, is dismal and less than 5% (1). The standard of care includes platinum based systemic therapy combinations. However, treatments are shifting toward newer targeted and small molecule therapies to improve outcomes among patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).