Revolutionary blood test breakthrough for lung cancer detection

A revolutionary discovery by scientists has revealed a new way doctors can test whether a patient is likely to develop lung cancer.

Research by the World Health Organisation’s International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) in France has made a breakthrough, claiming a simple blood test could be the key to detecting the cancer before it rears its ugly head.

By looking for four specific protein biomarkers in a person’s blood, doctors will be able to determine how likely they are to develop the disease that is responsible for almost one in five cancer deaths.

The study published in JAMA Oncology on Thursday, states the test can identify 63 per cent of future lung cancer patients among smokers or former smokers, giving those at risk a better idea of whether to progress forward with lung cancer screening.

Sadly, according to the Cancer Council, the risk of being diagnosed with lung cancer by the age of 85 is one in 13 for men and one in 21 for women with a total of 9,021 people last year dying from the disease.

However, according to Chief Executive Sanchia Aranda this new discovery could be life changing for thousands of people across the world.

“If you can screen the healthy individuals who would be eligible for surgery and get them into surgery earlier, then their chances of survival just increases automatically,” The Australian reports.

This isn’t the first time researchers have discussed the use of a blood test to help lung cancer patients with Australian scientists earlier this year revealing how a unique molecular signature in the blood that could be used to help treat patients living with an aggressive form of lung cancer, who are most likely to respond to immunotherapies.

Read more: Blood test may soon be able to detect aggressive lung cancer

The Melbourne based research team focused on the KEAP1/NRF2 and P13K signalling pathways, which are commonly found in human lung cancers known as adenocarcinomas.

The study found that 50 per cent of lung cancers are adenocarcinoma — a type of cancer that’s usually associated with a history of smoking, but is also the most commonly diagnosed lung cancer in non-smokers.

The researchers also found tumours from this type of lung cancer had specific characteristics that were highly likely to respond well to immunotherapy.

What do you think of this new information? Is the test something you would be willing to try?