Tumorigenesis of the lung cancer is a multistep transformation involving genetic and epigenetic alterations. Aims To evaluate the general genetic pathways, their involvement, determining how they relate to the biological behavior of lung cancer, and their utility as diagnostic and therapeutic targets. Materials and method Online literature search through Google scholars, Pubmed, and hard copies, using keywords “biological alterations and lung carcinoma” yielded 9,380,000 publications. The 16 selected papers were used as a basis to formulate this report, and to evaluate the general pathways and involved genes, determining how they relate to the biological behaviour of lung cancer and their utility as diagnostic and therapeutic targets. Results and discussion Growth signals and lung cancer: In tumours cell, the activated oncogenes encode the molecules relating to the signalling growth factors either by direct initiation of the cell growths as an imitation of other growth factors or neutralization of the growth factor inhibitor. Conclusion Significant advances in molecular biologic research during recent decades have resulted in a substantial insight into critical signalling pathways and mediators contributing to lung cancer pathogenesis.