Differences in the therapeutic strategies for lung cancer between Europe/United States and Japan

Lung cancer is a leading cause of malignancy-related death worldwide. Recently, therapeutic strategies for lung cancer have dramatically progressed, and attempts have been made to standardize the therapy for lung cancer. Because the disease prevalence and the susceptibility to the drugs differ with the circumstances, such as lifestyle, and genetic background, and ethnicity, the standard therapeutic strategies for lung cancer may differ with the individual country or region. Actually, the EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitor, gefitinib, is well known to be significantly effective for oriental people, including Japanese, female, adenocarcinoma and never-smoker, suggesting an inherited difference. Here we describe not only the standard therapeutic strategies but also the difference in therapeutic strategies for lung cancer between Europe/United States and Japan.