Mutational Events in Lung Cancer

The development of next-generation sequencing technologies has made it possible to characterize the genomic alterations in a tumor in an unbiased manner. A number of first- and next-generation sequencing studies to date have cataloged a wide spectrum of genetic and epigenetic aberrations in lung cancer. These studies have shown that, while some genetic alterations are shared between different subtypes of lung cancer, most of them tend to be histology specific. Additionally, lung cancers show heterogeneity in their clonal composition, both spatially and temporally. A comprehensive understanding of the frequently altered genes and pathways and the mechanisms by which these are effected will hopefully lead to the development of novel strategies for screening, prognostication, and treatment of patients with lung cancer.