Lung cancer has become one of the most prevalent cause of cancer related morbidity and mortality in past several decades across the world. Lungs are a pair of spongy tissues present in the thoracic cavity responsible for gaseous exchange from the surrounding environment. These tissues could be easily damaged by the toxins present in environment and cells may show cancerous growth upon longer exposure. The lung cancer is a collective term for cancer development in lungs, it could be divided into two broad categories: Small Cell Lung Cancer (SCLC) and Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer (NSCLC). It has been observed that NSCLC is the most prevalent type of lung cancer commonly associated with the people practicing the bad habit of cigarette smoking.
Surgery and radiation treatment has been found to have modest effect on NSCL while chemotherapy is largely ineffective due to refractory nature of the cancerous cells. Tumor removal was one of the widely used treatments when effective therapeutics was not available to the patients. Over time, radiation therapy made its place but large number of side effects limited its widespread usage and it was replaced by radiofrequency ablation method which is used to destroy on spot lung tumor cells with the help of high frequency radio waves. Advent of chemotherapeutics medicines helped the patients undergoing surgery or radiation therapy upto limited extent. Targeted therapies came after chemotherapy and they made place in market due to higher safety and efficacy levels.
Targeted therapeutics seems to overtake the NSCLC market due to higher safety and efficacy profiles. Moreover, pharmaceutical companies are promoting them as a replacement for chemotherapeutics which used to dominate in NSCLC therapeutic market. In few cases, combinatorial therapies chemotherapeutics are used with targeted therapeutics but their market share is in decline and this trend is expected to be continued in future. Targeted therapeutics should not be considered as all-in-one treatment as they also have few limitations which are expected to be resolved in near future. The new generation of targeted therapeutics is expected to have refinement at the level of design which will be considered as evolved version of presently available targeted therapeutics.
Advances in monoclonal antibody (mAbs) development technology are expected to evolve further in coming years due to which they may become major NSCLC therapeutic in market. Their potency is expected to increase along with minimum side effects and increase in specificity. The marketing potential of mAbs is expected to increase as they have proven track record and widely accepted by oncologists and patients. The developers of mAbs would consider that the simultaneous evolution of targeted and enzyme inhibitor therapies coupled with other therapies are in developing stages which will give them severe competition after some time. Their market share may get eroded by new NSCLC therapeutics which is likely to provide better pharmacological effect at competitive pricing.
Large clinical development pipeline for NSCLC therapeutics is expected to grow at tremendous rates in coming years. Pharmaceutical companies are investing significant amount of funds in clinical trials which may help large number of patients. But these therapeutics have prove their worth in clinical trials along with statistically significant data on safety and efficacy will be required. They will also take few years in passing regulatory hurdles and marketing authorization before providing medical care to NSCLC patients.
“Global Non Small Cell Lung Cancer Market & Pipeline Insight” Report Highlights: