Abstract

Background: Non-Small Cell Lung Carcinoma is one of the major cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide with an incidence rate of 1.3 million cases per year. Heat shock protein 90 (HSP90) is a promising drug target in cancer treatment. HSP90 is required to activate numerous eukaryotic proto-oncogenic protein kinases, hence play a prominent role in cancer.

Method: We reviewed fifty-five articles to highlight the importance of HSP90 in NSCLC and the recent developments of its inhibitors.

Results: This review showed that HSP90 inhibitors i.e. Ganestespib have shown great potential in the treatment of non-small cell lung carcinoma (NSCLC). Different HSP90 inhibitors has been designed till date that acts as effective drugs in tumour suppression. However, the utility of these drugs has been limited due to several drawbacks including hepato-toxicity, poor solubility, and poorly tolerated formulations.

Conclusion: The goal of this review is to present the data in support of use of HSP90 inhibitors in NSCLC and to provide an overview of the on-going clinical trials involving new-generation HSP90 inhibitors.

Keywords: Heat shock protein 90, non-small-cell lung carcinoma, inhibitors, drugs, clinical trials, co-chaperons, mutations.

Graphical Abstract