Considerable progress has been made in lung cancer therapy targeted on epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutation and anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) infusion. The mechanism of genes in lung cancer target therapy, such as EGFR, K-RAS, BRAF, C-MET, EML4-ALK, ROS1 and their relationship with EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitor (EGFR-TKI) and ALK gene infusion inhibitor are introduced. Meanwhile, important requirements in gene detection are elaborated, including the requirements for specimens, choice of methods and quality control in gene detection of lung cancer.