Le cancer broncho-pulmonaire non à petites cellules : point sur la pathologie et stratégie de décision thérapeutique

Non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is a frequent tumour with a bad prognosis and remains difficult to treat. In order to offer an optimal care to patients right after their diagnostic, an extensive coordination of currently available therapeutic means should be realized by establishing multidisciplinary meetings aiming for therapeutic decisions. Participation to these meetings would require the hospital pharmacist to have a basic knowledge in the field of pathology and of patient treatments. Surgery remains the optimal treatment but is only possible in twenty percent of NSCLC diagnoses. A treatment combining external radiotherapy with antitumoral chemotherapy is frequent for unresectable tumours. In most cases, antitumoral chemotherapy is composed of platinum-salt combinations and of two-drug-combination regimens or of single-agent chemotherapy without platinum compounds for the metastatic phases. Supporting care and a better usage of anticancer drugs allow their good employment. Innovative molecular therapies targeting the signalization of angiogenesis constitute the progress, that, even if modest, it increases the effectiveness of treatments and improves the patient's quality of life.