EDITORIAL article
Front. Oncol.
Sec. Thoracic Oncology
This article is part of the Research TopicTreatment Response and Resistance to Targeted Therapies for NSCLCView all 17 articles
Editorial: Treatment Response and Resistance to Targeted Therapies for NSCLC
Provisionally accepted
- 1West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China
- 2New Jersey Institute of Technology, Newark, United States
- 3University of Houston, Houston, United States
- 4Hunan Cancer Hospital, Changsha, China
- 5The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Hong Kong, SAR China
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Targeted therapies have revolutionized the treatment of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), offering a greater potency and fewer side effects compared to conventional radiotherapy and chemotherapy 1,2 . Despite their dramatic initial efficacy, acquired resistance almost invariably develops within one to two years after treatment initiation 3- 5 . Molecular mechanisms underlying treatment response and resistance in patients In summary, targeted therapy for NSCLC continues to face significant challenges. Acquired resistance remains a major barrier, driven by diverse and complex mechanisms including bypass signaling, phenotypic transformation, and compound mutations. Moreover, the heterogeneous molecular background of tumors leads to markedly varied patient responses even to the same targeted agent. Moving forward, a deeper understanding of the biology of resistance, more precise molecular screening, stratification and dynamic monitoring, and the development of novel mechanism-based combination strategies will be essential to improve long-term outcomes for patients.
Keywords: Editorial, Non-small cell lung cancer, targeted therapies, treatment resistance, treatment response
Received: 03 Jan 2026; Accepted: 28 Jan 2026.
Copyright: © 2026 Wei, Wei, Liu, Zhang and Zhang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Shiyou Wei
Zhi Wei
Yu Liu
Yong Zhang
Gao Zhang
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.