The situation changed dramatically with the advent of targeted therapy based on the determination of oncogenic driver mutations, including activating epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutations and anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) rearrangement, and currently over 10 molecular targets have been identified.9, 10, 11 Currently, the median survival time for patients with EGFR-mutated NSCLC is in the range of 2-4 years12,13 and for patients with ALK-rearranged NSCLC, over 7 years.12 Here, ALK is linked to non-small cell lung carcinoma.