Targeted therapies for small cell lung cancer: Where do we stand?

• SCLC accounts for 15% of all cases of lung cancer and has a dismal prognosis.
• Several avenues have been explored for targeted therapies in SCLC clinical trials.
• The PI3K/Akt/mTOR pathway is a promising target to develop new drugs for SCLC.

Small cell lung cancer (SCLC) accounts for 15% of lung cancer cases and is associated with a dismal prognosis. Standard therapeutic regimens have been improved over the past decades, but without a major impact on patient survival. The development of targeted therapies based on a better understanding of the molecular basis of the disease is urgently needed. At the genetic level, SCLC appears very heterogenous, although somatic mutations targeting classical oncogenes and tumor suppressors have been reported. SCLC also possesses somatic mutations in many other cancer genes, including transcription factors, enzymes involved in chromatin modification, receptor tyrosine kinases and their downstream signaling components. Several avenues have been explored to develop targeted therapies for SCLC. So far, however, there has been limited success with these targeted approaches in clinical trials. Further progress in the optimization of targeted therapies for SCLC will require the development of more personalized approaches for the patients.