Crizotinib: A New Treatment Option for ALK-Positive Non-Small

Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC)is the leading cause of cancer-relat-ed death worldwide.1 Prognosis is poor for patients with metastatic disease, with the median survival in this population less than a year. Only 16 % of patients di-agnosed with lung cancer are expected to live 5 years.2 Historically, patients with advanced NSCLC have been treated with standard chemotherapy and/or radi-ation. Over the last decade a greater un-derstanding in the molecular differences of NSCLC has resulted in the develop-ment of drugs targeted toward these dif-ferences. Anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) rearrangement, a rearrangement of the ALK gene, and echinoderm micro-tubule-associated protein-like 4 (EML4) gene, leads to constitutively activated ALK, resulting in inhibition of apoptosis and promotion of cell proliferation in tu