Emerging treatment paradigms for brain metastasis in non-small-cell lung cancer: an overview of the current landscape and challenges ahead

Abstract

Advances in the last decade in genomic profiling and the identification of druggable targets amenable to biological agents have transformed the management and survival of a subgroup of patients with brain metastasis in non-small-cell lung cancer. In parallel, clinicians have reevaluated the role of whole brain radiotherapy in selected patients with brain metastases to reduce neurocognitive toxicity. Continual progress in this understudied field is required: optimization of the sequence of schedules for therapies in patients with brain metastases of differing genomic profiles, focusing on new strategies to overcome mechanisms of biological resistance and increasing drug penetrability into the central nervous system. This review summarizes the field to date and possible treatment strategies based on current evidence.