More than 40 % of NSCLC patients develop CNS metastasis in their lifetime [1, 2]. As the burden of brain lesions affects both quality of life and survival, the development of therapies that are able to penetrate the blood-brain barrier is an important focus of research.

Years ago, the large National Lung Screening Trial that was published in 2011 demonstrated a 20 % relative reduction in lung cancer mortality due to annual screening over 3 years with low-dose CT compared to chest radiography.

At present, a lot of developments for many types of cancer are being tested in phase I trials, not only for lung cancer. I think that in the past we were very agnostic about whether or not the mechanism of a phase I drug will work for a particular cancer.

As the treatment landscape for EGFR-mutant stage IIIB/IV NSCLC has significantly changed over the past years, Hirsh et al. assessed current attitudes among physicians towards decision making for EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) sequencing.

In the setting of ALK-positive NSCLC, the first-generation ALK inhibitor crizotinib is currently being replaced as the first-line standard by next-generation agents. The open-label, randomised, multicentre, phase III ALTA-1L trial investigated the ALK/ROS1 inhibitor brigatinib in untreated patients.

Traditionally, the standard-of-care treatment for patients with unresectable, stage III non–small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) used to be platinum-based chemoradiotherapy.

The demands in lung cancer care are changing as we proceed in our efforts to improve outcomes. Besides investigating the optimal succession of agents to prolong survival in the best possible way, we need to learn to manage toxicity, and strategies must be found to limit treatment costs to a range that can be afforded by healthcare systems in the long run.