New strategies for targeting the therapy of NSCLC: the role of ERCC1 and TS

The evaluation of gene and protein expression profiles is a promising strategy to drive the therapeutical decision-making in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Among the several candidate genes that have been proposed, many retrospective studies have indicated excision repair cross-complementing 1 (ERCC1), an endonuclease responsible for the repair of DNA damages, as a reliable biomarker of tumor sensitivity to platinum-based agents. Moreover, the recent evidences showing the clinical efficacy of next-generation multitargeted antifolate drugs, in NSCLC, have highlighted the role of the determination of thymidylate synthase (TS) expression levels. Here is presented a brief overview of the literature regarding these two genes that are currently under prospective investigation as predictive markers of treatment efficacy in NSCLC.