New Test For Lung Cancer Screening Planned

Editor's Choice
Main Category: Lung Cancer
Also Included In: Cancer / Oncology;  Respiratory / Asthma
Article Date: 04 Jan 2012 - 8:00 PST

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Each year in the U.S., lung cancer kills more individuals than prostate, colon, and breast cancers combined. Often the disease goes undetected until it has reached an advanced and more difficult-to-treat stage.

At present the only method to detect lung cancer are biopsies, which are highly involved and invasive for patients. Roswell Park Cancer Institute (RPCI) scientist, Sai Yendamuri, MD, FCCP, aims to create a blood test that can help diagnose cancer in individuals prior to undergoing a biopsy. The study is supported by a $100,000 OneBreath Clinical Research Award in Lung Cancer from The CHEST Foundation.

According to Yendamuri, like colonoscopy for colon cancer and mammography for breast cancer - which can detect pre-cancerous conditions and very early cancers - lung nodules, some of which can be cancerous, can be detected using CT scans.

Dr. Yendamuri said:

"However, only one of 10 nodules identified on CT scans eventually proves to be lung cancer. And while biopsies are the sure way to detect a cancer, procedures are much more involved when it comes to lung masses than they are for breast and colon masses."

Dr. Yendamuri, Attending Surgeon in RPCI's Department of Thoracic Surgery, explains that his study will be the first to identify blood-based biomarkers for lung cancer. "Specifically, we will look at microRNAs, small molecules which regulate other molecules, thereby influencing normal physiology as well pathology."

For health in addition to disease states, microRNAs are appearing as promising biomarkers. According to preliminary research by Dr. Yendamuri, microRNA profiling of whole blood can identify "with high accuracy" individuals with the disease from those without lung cancer. The goal of the current investigation is to expand the preliminary work in order to find out which microRNAs or signatures of microRNAs can predict disease state the best.

Yendamuri explains:

"At that point we will create a whole blood microRNA assay for lung cancer. We will then validate our findings by checking for these biomarkers in blood samples of lung cancer patients before and after resection surgery, to understand whether these signatures represent cancer presence versus cancer susceptibility."

If the trial is successful, such a test will possibly help to diagnose lung cancer early, and improve cure rates for the disease.

Written by Grace Rattue
Copyright: Medical News Today
Not to be reproduced without permission of Medical News Today

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