Abstract: Lung cancer is one of the most malignant carcinomas worldwide, with extremely high incidence and mortality. The factors that affect lung cancer initiation, progression and metastasis are complicated, which could be roughly divided into two parts, from either cancer cells themselves or tumor-associated microenvironment. On the one hand, genomic and proteomic alterations in cancer cells determinate their characteristics. On the other hand, tumor microenvironment, including both immune and non-immune microenvironments, significantly affect tumorigenesis and malignant progression. Studies in lung cancer and its microenvironment help improve the understanding of molecular mechanisms, and lay an important theoretical foundation to the clinical diagnosis and therapy. In this review, we summarized recent progress of lung cancer genomics, proteomics, phenotypic plasticity and microenvironment, and discussed potential therapeutic strategies for clinical treatment.

Key words: Lung cancer, Genomics, Proteomics, Tumor plasticity, Tumor microenvironment