Laser capture microdissection in lung cancer: a narrative review

Objective and Background: Lung cancer is still the most common cause of cancer mortality worldwide. Nowadays, precise identification of predictive biomarkers plays an unavoidable role in the treatment of non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). In the interest of molecular and protein analysis efficiency, the proper isolation of the neoplastic cells from the surrounding stroma may be performed with laser capture microdissection (LCM), an accurate device based on laser cutting blended with a high quality resolution microscope. In the course of time, LCM has been progressively improved, leading to its full automatization and/or its pairing with more modern tools, such as mass spectrometry (MS) with matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization (MALDI) technique. Methods: We performed a literature search in PubMed (Medline) for studies written in the English language and published from January 1, 1995 to December 20, 2021 using a predefined search strategy combining the following search terms: “lung cancer” and “laser capture microdissection”. Key Content and Findings: This narrative review provides an overview of recent years LCM technological innovations regarding the attempt to make it more usable in the clinical practice daily-routine or either push its performances up to a single cell spatial resolution. Conclusions: LCM is a reliable method for the investigation of specific areas of interest, especially crucial nowadays in the characterization of lung cancer molecular signatures for their associated customized treatments. In the future, its reliability and ease of use will make it an essential step in the application of every type of increasingly sophisticated downstream analysis that will be developed in this scientific field.