The third edition of the NCCN Lung Cancer Guidelines in 2020 states that the factors that should be considered when selecting the best diagnostic procedure include: sufficient tissue sample size for diagnosis and molecular testing. In the clinical manifestations of advanced or metastatic disease, molecular detection accounts for a large proportion, and there are different clinical treatments and the use of corresponding targeted drugs for different test results. It also lists predictive and prognostic biomarkers that are important for lung cancer.

The consensus pointed out that for advanced NSCLC, adenocarcinoma or other types of lung cancer containing adenocarcinoma components, EGFR gene mutation and anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) fusion gene testing should be routinely performed at the same time as diagnosis. If necessary, fusion of c-ros oncogene 1 tyrosine kinase (ROS1) gene and RET gene, K-RAS gene and BRAF gene V600E mutation, human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) gene amplification, MET high-level gene amplification and mutation detection of MET gene exon 14 skip deletion. And for different genetic mutations, there are different treatments.