Abstract
Anaplastic lymphoma tyrosine kinase (ALK) inhibitors have strong antitumor effects in patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) with ALK fusion gene. The ALK inhibitors crizotinib, ceritinib, and alectinib were developed. Companion diagnostic and therapeutic agents for specific ALK inhibition have been simultaneously approved, but this is causing severe inconvenience in clinical practice for diagnosing ALK-positive lung cancer.
The therapeutic strategy for the patients is mainly by molecularly targeted therapy. The current status of ALK inhibitors and specificity of biomarkers in ALK-positive lung cancer are reviewed in this study. In summary, there are many arguments relating to the appropriate use of crizotinib, ceritinib, or alectinib as the situation demands and regarding which agent to use first. Many clinicians question the limitations of companion diagnostics and therapeutic agents; a more flexible response will be expected in order to accurately diagnose and provide proper treatment of ALK-positive lung cancer.
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Gemma, A. (2017). ALK Mutant. In: Takiguchi, Y. (eds) Molecular Targeted Therapy of Lung Cancer. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-2002-5_11
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-2002-5_11
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