Conclusions
Lung cancer continues to be a leading cause of cancer-related mortality throughout the world. The five-year survival rate for advanced, especially metastatic, disease is dismal. The colonization of the brain as a metastatic site contributes to the mortality of this disease, resulting in a dramatically reduced survival expectation. A thorough understanding of the genetics and molecular mechanisms that govern CNS metastasis from the lung are far from complete at this time. The emergence of next-generation sequencing along with the collection of patient-matched primary and CNS metastatic lesions offers a path forward towards a more complete understanding of the metastatic process and novel therapeutic avenues. Targeted approaches as seen with EGFR-targeted therapeutics positively affecting patient outcome with CNS metastasis offers hope that a full understanding of the CNS metastatic process will lead to better therapeutics and improved patient survival.