The optional approach of oncogene-addicted non-small cell lung cancer with brain metastases in the new generation targeted therapies era.

In recent years, the study of the molecular characteristics of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) has highlighted a specific role of some genes that represent important therapeutic targets, including epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK), c-ros oncogene 1 (ROS-1) and v-Raf murine sarcoma viral oncogene homolog B1 (BRAF). Patients with oncogene-addicted cancer benefit more from therapy with tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) than from chemotherapy. The brain is a preferred site for tumor spread in these patients.

Treatment of limited-stage small cell lung cancer in the elderly, chemotherapy vs. sequential chemoradiotherapy vs. concurrent chemoradiotherapy: that's the question.

Chemotherapy is the mainstay of the treatment in limited disease (LD) and extended disease (ED) small cell lung cancer (SCLC) patients, while concurrent chemoradiotherapy (CRT) is the standard of care in healthy patients with LD. However, this intensive treatment is associated with significantly more toxicity in the subset of patients aged 70 years or more. To date, most of available data concerning CRT in elderly derived from retrospective analyzes, usually conducted on small samples of patients, poorly representative of this population.