Vistas in Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer (NSCLC) Treatment: of Kinome and Signaling Networks

Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is the prevailing lung cancer type, accounting for ~85% of all lung cancer cases. Despite their initial promise, current chemotherapeutic protocols are reaching their limits. This necessitates the prompt discovery of new molecular drivers and the development of novel regimens for advanced NSCLC. Herein, we pose that there is a need to systematically profile the human kinome activity of NSCLC. Using available state-of-the-art technologies, a wide gamut of kinase activities can be simultaneously mapped and quantified specifically in the primary or metastatic cancer states, with oncogenic kinase functions being likely linked to mutation signatures and malignant features of NSCLC. New chemical compound libraries can then be screened for kinase inhibitory properties in preclinical model systems, with presumptive induction of programmed cell-death subroutines and signaling-disintegration routes serving as major outputs of novel inhibitor tumor-suppressor potentials.