Dr. Langer on the Evolution of Molecular Testing in Advanced NSCLC

Corey J. Langer, MD, professor of medicine, University of Pennsylvania, director, Thoracic Oncology, Penn Medicine, discusses the evolution of molecular testing in advanced non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

Molecular testing is routinely ordered for patients with de novo metastatic NSCLC or recurrent disease following prior curative-intent therapy, Langer explains. Although testing isn’t ordered for all patients, it should be done in patients with nonsquamous NSCLC regardless of smoking history and nonsmokers or remote former smokers regardless of histology.

Additionally, it is possible routine molecular testing will be done for all patients with NSCLC in the next 1 to 2 years because an increasing number of molecular abnormalities, including EGFR mutations and MET amplifications, have been identified in patients with squamous histology, Langer concludes.