Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer related death in the United States, claiming more than 160,000 lives annually. The ability to non-invasively screen for lung cancers before they have the opportunity to grow and metastasize would be a significant achievement, and would drastically reduce mortality from this disease.

With lung cancer, early detection is critical and would significantly reduce mortality from this disease. According to the National Cancer Institute, the 5-year relative survival rate for patients with localized lung tumors is 53%. This survival rate decreases significantly however, once the cancer has advanced to the regional lymph nodes, or if the cancer has fully metastasized. Consequently, early screening and detection methods have played a large role in improving survival for patients with breast, colon, and cervical cancers. 

There are currently no known methods to screen for lung cancer. Recently the National Cancer Institute released early results from the National Lung Screening Trial which showed that screening with low-dose helical Computed Tomography (CT) resulted in a 20% reduction in mortality from lung cancer in smokers screened with this modality. This method however was associated with a false positive rate of 25%, leading clinicians to perform additional diagnostic procedures on a large cohort of patients who have benign diagnoses. These work-ups often occur in the setting of other co-morbidities thus heightening potential complications. Clearly, there is a pressing need to develop safer, more effective non-invasive techniques to reliably screen for early stage tumors in the lung.

UCLA researchers have developed a novel blood test based on a panel of protein biomarkers. These biomarkers were carefully selected following extensive studies evaluating the mechanisms of cancer progression. Using an immunoassay based system researchers are able to quantitate the levels of these proteins in peripheral blood samples. With this test, clinicians will be able to distinguish between early stage lung cancer and at risk control subjects. This diagnostic test is noninvasive and may provide a means to monitor subjects at risk for developing lung cancer. In addition, it is anticipated that this panel would have utility in the common clinical scenario where a current or former smoker presents with an abnormal chest CT scan, with or without additional clinical symptoms of lung cancer.

The development of this invention is at the experimental stage. We currently have a panel that can distinguish between early stage lung cancer and at risk control subjects. We are currently working to test the ability of the panel to discriminate between a benign pulmonary nodule and lung cancer.

Categorized As

• Medical
  • Diagnostics
  • Disease: Genetic Diseases and Dysmorphic Syndromes

Related cases

2010-446-0

Keywords

Biomarker, Screening, Detection, Lung Cancer, Protein