According to Global cancer statistics 2018, the global cancer burden is estimated to have risen to 18.1 million new cases and 9.6 million deaths in 2018. Nearly half of the new cases and more than half of the cancer deaths worldwide in 2018 are estimated to occur in Asia. Cancer of the lung is responsible for both the leading type of new cases (11.6% of the total cancer incidence) and the largest number of deaths (1.8 million deaths, 18.4% of the total) worldwide because of the poor prognosis for this cancer due to lack of effective therapy.

Treatment options for lung cancer include surgery, radiation therapy, chemotherapy, immunotherapy, targeted therapy and combination therapy. Therapeutic-modalities recommendations depend on several factors, including the type and stage of cancer. Despite the improvements in diagnosis and therapy made during the past 30 years, the prognosis for patients with lung cancer is still unsatisfactory. The responses to current standard therapies are poor except for the most localized cancers.

Targeted therapy and immunotherapy have changed the treatment paradigm of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and become the future direction for lung cancer therapy based on the major advances achieved recently. Targeted therapies focus on cancer cells by interrupting their growth and how they function and help reduce damage to healthy cells. However, while targeted therapy in NSCLC has provided disease control, the tumors inevitably develop drug resistance. With the advent of whole genome sequencing technology, we will have more understanding on the biological mechanism of the occurrence and development of NSCLC and the mechanism of drug resistance thus new generation of targeted therapy overcoming drug resistance can be designed and developed.

TargetMol’s Anti-Lung Cancer Compound Library collects 1,566 compounds targeting lung cancer’s major signaling pathways or having anti-lung cancer therapeutic activity reported in literatures.