Breakthroughs in the treatment of advanced squamous-cell NSCLC: not the neglected sibling anymore?

During the last years, translational research has contributed in many advances in the treatment of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) discovering genetic alternations or recognizing the immuno-escape and neo-angiogenesis of lung cancer. Although the majority of these advances took place in the non-squamous histological subtype, therapeutic options for patients diagnosed with advanced squamous cell lung cancer (SqCLC) have been also enriched significantly with the addition of nab-paclitaxel in the conventional chemotherapy; the introduction of necitumumab, afatinib and erlotinib in the inhibition of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) axis and of ramucirumab in the inhibition of VEGF-induced angiogenesis and last with the approvals of nivolumab, pembrolizumab atezolizumab and durvalumab soon in the promising field of immunotherapies. Agents targeted various other pathways including FGFR, IGF-1, PI3K, CDK4/6, MET and PARP inhibitors are under investigation in order to open new prospects in the treatment of SqCLC. In this review, we present all published data that led to recent approvals for the treatment of advanced SqCLC and all ongoing clinical trials that keep searching for new molecular targets following a more-personalized approach.