Advancements in next-generation sequencing for diagnosis and treatment of non-small-cell lung cancer

In recent years, lung cancer has been the most commonly diagnosed cancer globally; 1.6 million people died of lung cancer in 2012 globally, making lung cancer the leading cause of cancer-related deaths.1,2 Lung cancer can be mainly histologically classified into two types: non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and small-cell lung cancer (SCLC), ac-counting for approximately 85% and 15% of cases, respectively.3 NSCLC can be further classified as squamous cell carcinoma, adenocarcinoma, and large-cell lung carcinoma, among which lung adenocarci-noma is the most common primary malignant tumor. Unfortunately, most NSCLC cases are diagnosed at a late stage when the survival rate is low; the 5-year survival rate is approximately 16%.