Abstract
With the advent of third-generation drugs in the 1990s, major advances were made in the treatment of non-small cell lung carcinoma; however, standard cytostatic therapy has not shown any further significant improvement in therapeutic outcomes and may well have reached its limits. Therefore, research is focused on drugs that specifically react with the cell signalling molecules, either of tumour cells directly or inhibit vessel formation in the tumour.
In addition to a different mechanism of action, they differ from standard chemotherapy in the more favourable spectrum of adverse events. Erlotinib, gefitinib, and bevacizumab have been introduced into practice and authorised in the EU.
Dozens of other drugs are in various phases of clinical research.