Targeted Therapy for Lung Cancer

Customizing Therapies for Specific Tumors

“Targeted therapies” are treatments specifically designed to target parts of cancer cells that cause lung cancer to grow and spread. These therapies are also called molecular therapies or molecular-targeted therapies because they focus on specific changes that occur inside cells when they become cancerous.

Lung cancer specialists at the University of Chicago Medicine may recommend targeted therapies as part of your treatment. We offer a wide range of targeted therapies for lung cancer, including many novel medicines through our clinical trials.

Benefits of Targeted Therapies and Personalized Medicine for Lung Cancer

Targeted therapies are a type of personalized medicine, which involves precisely tailoring cancer treatment based on the specific genetic makeup of your lung cancer tumor. Some of the newer targeted therapies can be taken by mouth so they do not require an infusion (intravenous or IV line). Compared with chemotherapy, targeted therapy also requires fewer clinic visits.

Types of Targeted Therapies

UChicago Medicine offers a broad spectrum of FDA-approved and investigational targeted therapies.

Tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) block enzymes needed for cancer cell growth. For example, the drug osimertinib is an EGFR inhibitor that targets the EGFR (epidermal growth factor receptor) gene. When the EGFR gene is mutated and overactive, cancer cells grow quickly.

KRAS inhibitors like sotorasib and adagrasib are currently FDA-approved for people with non-small lung cancer who have a particular KRAS mutation in their tumor and have already received chemotherapy or immunotherapy. KRAS inhibitors are also being studied in combination with immunotherapy for patients who are previously untreated. Unlike many other cancer treatments, KRAS inhibitors can be taken by mouth (orally).

Other types of targeted therapies that target genetic mutations in certain lung cancers include:

• ALK inhibitors
• ROS1 inhibitors
• BRAF inhibitors
• MET inhibitors
• RET inhibitors
• NTRK inhibitors

Antibody drug conjugates (ADCs) are targeted therapies linked to chemotherapy. One example is the HER2 inhibitor known as trastuzumab deruxtecan, which can treat non-small cell lung cancer with a HER2 mutation or HER2 overexpression. More antibody drug conjugates are being studied for lung cancer, including many in clinical trials at UChicago Medicine.