New Protein To Detect Lung Cancer

Researchers may have found a biomarker for lung cancer as identified in an article by Ana Sandoiu that was fact-checked by Jasmin Collier. This would allow healthcare professionals to detect the disease while it is still in stage one.

The 2nd most prevalent form of cancer is lung cancer and the top cancer killer in both sexes. It is estimated by the American Cancer Society (ACS) that in 2018, about 154,050 people in the U.S. will have died from this disease. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 1.69 million deaths are brought about by lung cancer worldwide. This particular cancer has such a high mortality rate as it is often caught at an advanced stage.

Around 3/4 of people with lung cancer have already experienced symptoms when they go for a checkup, and cancer has usually already spread to other parts of the lungs or elsewhere in the body. As stated by Yuichi Sato of the Department of Molecular Diagnostics at the Kitasato University School of Allied Health Sciences in Kanagawa, Japan, it is extremely important to improve prognosis early, therefore we need better biomarkers for early diagnosis. He led a new study that identified a protein that may help to diagnose lung cancer while still in early stage 1. The ACS reports the survival rate for those whose lung cancer is diagnosed at stage 1 ranges between 68 and 92%.

The new protein is called cytoskeleton-associated protein 4 or CKAP4 and is a potential lung cancer biomarker. His report is detailed in The American Journal of Pathology. It is his belief that the CKAP4 is better than current biomarkers. Study co-author Ryo Nagashio explained that the four main biomarkers currently used to detect lung cancer are: carcinoma embryonic antigen (CEA), sialyl Lewis X antigen, squamous cell carcinoma antigen (SCCA) and cytokeratin fragment (CYFRA) 21-1. None of these are sensitive enough to detect cancer in its first stages. CXEA, CYFRA, and SCCA are known to have the following sensitivities, respectively: 30-53%, 17-82%, and 24-39%.

Using machine learning algorithms, they found CKAP4 proved a sensitivity between 69 and 81%. The biomarker sensitivity remained high even in stage 1 lung cancer, meaning the CKAP4 blood levels were high in people with this early stage of the disease. The results of the study give evidence that the CKAP4 protein may be a novel early serodiagnostic marker for lung cancer.

The use of CKAP4 as a biomarker could change current practices regarding how lung cancer patients are treated, and diagnostic accuracies may be much improved by the combination of CKAP4 and conventional markers.

Dr Fredda Branyon