Chemokines as Therapeutic Targets in Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer: Update

This update focuses on recent advances in the knowledge of roles which chemokines play in the biology of a tumor, and on ways of exploiting this knowledge to achieve therapeutic advances in the treatment of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Chemokines were once thought to play important roles only in the trafficking of leukocytes in the immune response. That this large family of proteins can play a role in homeostasis, cancer, and many chronic diseases is now widely recognized by many investigators in these diverse fields. In the filed of cancer in particular, recent findings indicate that chemokines function in; 1) Directing organ-specific patterns of metastatic disease that characterize solid tumors 2) Providing prognostic information for patients undergoing surgery for NSCLC by means of their angiogenic properties, and 3) Initiation and control of tumor-specific immune responses, such that chemokines may actually be used therapeutically to augment cytotoxic T-cell responses to tumors. Recent findings in three areas, as well as their implications for therapeutic advances in NSCLC, will be the focal point of this update.