[Novel morphological and molecular aspects of lung cancer]

Abstract

In recent years the classification of pulmonary cancer has seen a paradigm shift with respect to both morphological as well as molecular aspects. On the morphological side this includes novel criteria for tumor classification from biopsy material based on morphological and immunohistochemical aspects as well as a novel classification based on morphological patterns for pulmonary adenocarcinomas. In addition, this new classification now includes adenocarcinoma in situ as well as minimally invasive adenocarcinoma as novel entities and a variety of novel adenocarcinoma subtypes. This reclassification was accompanied and complemented by tremendous developments in the field of lung cancer genomics which paved the way for now widely established predictive molecular markers, e.g. epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutations and EML4-ALK translocations and will certainly lead to a variety of novel predictive markers not only for pulmonary adenocarcinoma but also for other pulmonary neoplasms.