<i>EGFR</i> Status Assessment for Better Care of Early Stage Non-Small Cell Lung Carcinoma: What Is Changing in the Daily Practice of Pathologists?

• Main Author: Paul Hofman
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2021-08-01
• Series: Cells
• Subjects: non-small cell lung carcinoma; early stage; targeted therapies; <i>EGFR</i>; molecular tests
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4409/10/8/2157

The recent emergence of novel neoadjuvant and/or adjuvant therapies for early stage (I-IIIA) non-small cell lung carcinoma (NSCLC), mainly tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) targeting <i>EGFR</i> mutations and immunotherapy or chemo-immunotherapy, has suddenly required the evaluation of biomarkers predictive of the efficacy of different treatments in these patients. Currently, the choice of one or another of these treatments mainly depends on the results of immunohistochemistry for PD-L1 and of the status of <i>EGFR</i> and <i>ALK</i>. This new development has led to the setup of different analyses for clinical and molecular pathology laboratories, which have had to rapidly integrate a number of new challenges into daily practice and to establish new organization for decision making. This review outlines the impact of the management of biological samples in laboratories and discusses perspectives for pathologists within the framework of <i>EGFR</i> TKIs in early stage NSCLC.