Molecular biology of lung cancer

The understanding of lung cancer pathogenesis has advanced as molecular technologies have brought insight to its biology. That we now know that lung cancers detected in the clinic are the product of numerous and complex genetic and epigenetic changes that inactivate tumor-suppressor genes (TSGs) and activate oncogenes is the result of recent work in molecular biology. These abnormalities, while bearing distinctions and similarities to those described in other cancers, can be organized under the "hallmarks of cancer," as proposed by Hanahan and Weinberg [1], which has proved a useful rubric for discussion of molecular studies [2].