Department of Medicine, Penn State Hershey Medical Center, 500 University Drive, CH72, Hershey, PA 17033, USA.
Adv Exp Med Biol. 2013;779:385-404. doi: 10.1007/978-1-4614-6176-0_18.
Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related deaths world-wide and small-cell lung cancer (SCLC) accounts for up to 25% of lung cancer deaths. There has been a considerable amount of research in the understanding of the depth of biology of SCLC and utilizing this knowledge to develop targeted approaches. The treatment of SCLC remains a challenge, despite remarkable initial efficacy to combination chemotherapy and radiation therapy. The response is usually short-lived and the prognosis of SCLC has not changed over the past few decades, necessitating the critical need for evaluating novel agents/therapies. Several signaling pathways have been found to be activated in SCLC tumor cells, forming a rationale for blocking some of the drugable targets. Molecular changes and biological markers have been identified but remain to be validated. Novel and targeted agents have been evaluated but without much success. Increasing understanding of the biology and potential clinical evaluation of biomarkers will pave the way for more effective treatments.
肺癌是全球癌症相关死亡的主要原因，小细胞肺癌 (SCLC) 占肺癌死亡人数的 25% 左右。人们对 SCLC 的生物学深度有了相当多的研究，并利用这些知识开发了靶向方法。尽管联合化疗和放疗最初有显著疗效，但 SCLC 的治疗仍然是一个挑战。这种反应通常是短暂的，SCLC 的预后在过去几十年中并没有改变，因此迫切需要评估新的药物/疗法。已经发现几种信号通路在 SCLC 肿瘤细胞中被激活，为阻断一些可用药的靶点提供了合理依据。已经确定了分子变化和生物标志物，但仍需验证。已经评估了新型和靶向药物，但没有取得太大成功。对生物学的深入了解以及对生物标志物的潜在临床评估将为更有效的治疗铺平道路。
