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  Update on management and targeted therapies for Small Cell Lung Carcinoma

  Vol. 1 No. 1 (2025)

  Abstract

  Small-cell lung cancer (SCLC) is an exceptionally lethal subtype of lung cancer mainly coupled with smoking trends and is becoming the most common cause of cancer related deaths in the world. Patients with limited stage SCLC (LS-SCLC) are advised to carry out Prophylactic Cranial Irradiation (PCI) along with Combination therapy comprised of initial dose of thoracic radiation therapy maintained by a cycle of chemotherapy. Chemo-radiation technique is considered as standard for the patients of LS-SCLC. In clinical outcomes of small cell lung cancer immunotherapy has made progress and has led to significant improvement in the treatment of SCLC.The First line standard treatment for extensive stage-SCLC (ES-SCLC) comprises of chemotherapy with etoposide and platinum compounds like cisplatin, carboplatin etc. FDA has recently approved the combination of Carboplatin and Etoposide with Atezolizumab for the patients of ES-SCLC. Some molecule-targeted therapies are used alone or in combination with chemotherapy like Anti-Angiogenesis Drugs, Histone Deacetylase Inhibitors, Apoptosis Targeting Agents and Cell signaling targeting agents. DNA repair proteins like MGMT, PARP1, CHK1 & BRCA1, 2. PARP1 are the important treatment targets in SCLC. Several anti-PD-1 and anti-PD-L1 monoclonal antibodies are under current investigations and have been tested in both front-line setting and as maintenance therapy in pretreated patients with SCLC. Rovalpituzumab-tesirine (Rova-T) is used as Cytotoxic Antibody–Drug Conjugate for SCLC. Keeping in view the current research literature, innovative clinical trial projects are needed to competently discover the increasing number of choices with new drugs and new combinations. This review looks at the diverse options of treatment that have been used over the last few years and tries to highlight the best available.

  Keywords: LS-SCLC, ES-SCLC, Chemotherapy, monoclonal antibodies, Cytotoxic Antibody–Drug Conjugate.