Detecting Lung Cancer

A recent article was written by Maria Cohut and fact-checked by Jasmin Collier on the detection of lung cancer. This particular cancer is very often detected by accident and after unrelated medical exams. The malign and benign tumors are difficult to tell apart, except when using invasive methods as a biopsy. There is one blood test that can rule out cancer and maybe just what we require.

There are millions of pulmonary nodules per year detected in the U.S. that require further testing to ascertain if they are cancerous. Even though biopsies are invasive, doctors will often advise even more invasive procedures, such as surgery, to remove the nodules and the patient’s doubts. A whole set of risks come for fragile organs such as the lungs, which could potentially make things worse.

A study was led by Dr. Gerard Silvestri of the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston to explore a noninvasive method to determine if lung nodules are benign or malign. The lung, for example, could collapse during a biopsy and need a tube to expand it. Therefore he and his team have explored the merits of a blood test focusing on the presence of biomarkers that could indicate how likely it is that the detected nodules are cancerous.

The biomarkers are to help calculate the risk of cancer, present the patient with options and recommendations and to avoid subjecting the patients with the benign disease to expensive, unnecessary and intrusive procedures.

This test demonstrates an accuracy of 98%. The main biomarkers that the test assesses are the proteins LG3BP and C163A, the plasma concentrations of which predict this type of cancer. If they are negative the person tested has a lung cancer chance of under 50%, therefore cancer possibility is very reduced. This way the healthcare practitioners can come up with an appropriate treatment plan and follow-up routine.

Those patients with a negative result and low likelihood of malign tumors would still be monitored periodically to be sure no errors were made. Low-risk tumors would be followed with serial imaging and scans performed periodically after 2 years without evidence of growth. At that time they can say it’s benign.

Dr Fredda Branyon