Systemic Therapy Personalization

**107**

**Chapter 7**

**Abstract**

NGS, NSCLC

**1. Introduction**

Precision Medicine in Lung

*Massimo Dominici and Khawaja Husnain Haider*

Opportunities in Diagnostic and

Lung cancer is one of the leading causes of cancer death among both men and women, making up almost 25% of all cancer deaths. Precision medicine shows promise for improving many aspects of health and healthcare, including tests, drugs, and other technologies that support innovation, with the possibility of new partnerships with scientists in a wide range of specialties. Non–small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) has become a prominent example of the success of precision medicine in treating solid tumor malignancies. The first step in this process involves new bloodbased diagnostics, which can now noninvasively provide clinically useful information. However, the identification of novel biomarkers that could be used in early diagnosis is urgently needed, especially for guiding initial therapy and predicting relapse or drug resistance following the administration of novel targeted therapies.

**Keywords:** precision medicine, target therapy, liquid biopsy, CTC, CSCs, miRNA,

The scientific community tends to conflate the meanings of "precision medicine" and "personalized medicine" [1, 2]. In fact, the National Research Council defines "personalized medicine" with an old meaning quite similar to that of "precision medicine." However, whereas personalized medicine mainly focuses on medical actions for a single person, precision medicine explores various factors affecting that person's condition, such as diseases, the environment, etc. [3]. Precision medicine is able to provide specific genetic maps for patients with elevated cancer risks, potentially revealing gene mutations and thus calculating the

Recently, the use of precision medicine has been expanded to attempt treatment of several solid tumors, including those of breast, brain, and lung cancer [4, 5]. In

**1.1 Lung cancer and the meaning of "precision medicine"**

likelihood of family members' developing a certain type of cancer.

Cancer: Challenges and

Therapeutic Purposes

*Beatrice Aramini, Valentina Masciale,* 

*Federico Banchelli, Roberto D'Amico,* 

## **Chapter 7**
