What Does the Medical Oncologist Expect from the Pathologist in Order to Treat a Metastatic Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer?

Abstract

In the last decade, researchers provided us with significant advances in our understanding of lung cancer biology and management. They were able to identify many key driver events in lung carcinogenesis, resulting in the discovery of new modalities of targeted therapies towards a personalized medicine. In the same perspective, many clinical trials, together with the immunotherapy are including the patients according to the tumor mutational status and the expression of certain receptors or ligands. Thus, the pathological diagnosis is of high clinical relevance. Moreover, the pathologist is becoming an integrated and essential member during the multi-disciplinary team discussions, enriching our oncologic knowledge with a more developed and structured classification of non-small cell lung cancer. Here, in this review, we will discuss and list what Medical Oncologists are expecting to find in a pathology report in order to adequately treat the patients suffering from a metastatic non-small cell lung cancer.