New Test for Lung Cancer

All to often lung cancer is detected at its later stages making treatment less effective and survival less likely. Fortunately scientists are developing a new blood test that detects proteins produced by the body as an immune response to cancerous tumors in the lung. Detection of this protein seems to provide early diagnosis of non-small cell lung cancer in patients, when compared to CT scan. Lung cancer is the second most common type of cancer in North America. It leads to 3 million deaths worldwide every year. The main cause of lung cancer is exposure to cigarette smoke. This accounts for up to 90 percent of lung cancers. Non-small cell lung cancer (NACL) is the most common type of lung cancer and accounts for 80 percent of all cases. Newly diagnosed non-small cell patients have a 40 percent chance of living the next five years, with only half surviving the first year after diagnoses. If this new blood test proves to be reliable, and it is approved for market, it could become an effective early screening tool for lung cancer. The diagnosis of lung cancer is currently made by performing a CAT scan when a patient complains of symptoms suggestive of lung cancer. Symptoms may not appear until the cancer has spread throughout the lungs, reducing the effectiveness of treatments and increasing the risk of death from the disease. CAT scans are fairly inaccurate and have a high false positive rate, necessitating biopsy to test the suspected cancerous lump in the patient?s lung. The new blood test is 90 percent accurate in detecting lung cancer in patients, and has an extremely low false positive rate. This blood test would allow the early detection of lung cancer in many patients and reduce the number of biopsies performed on patients without lung cancer. Early detection is critical when treating patients and increases the patients? survival rate.