Drug sensitivity testing for personalized lung cancer therapy

Lung cancer is a biologically diverse disease. Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), which represents about 80% of all lung cancer, is the leading worldwide cause of cancer-related death. NSCLC consists of adenocarcinoma, squamous cell carcinoma and large cell carcinoma (1). There are a number of conventional chemotherapeutic regimens available for NSCLC that, due to the heterogeneity of the disease at pathological, cellular and molecular levels, do not have the same effectiveness in individual patients. Oncologists have to decide which of the conventional regimens would potentially be optimal for a particular patient. The selection is crucial since the currently available chemo drugs are quite toxic and the toxic side effects of an ineffective regimen could preclude use of additional chemotherapy (2).