Gene test helps predict lung cancer, study finds

	Tweet

A test that finds damaged genes in the lungs of people considered at high risk of lung cancer might be able to predict who actually develops the deadly disease, U.S. researchers said on Wednesday.

The test is still not accurate enough for widespread use, but could replace risky and expensive X-rays, the researchers said.

“Short of repeatedly X-raying a person’s lungs to look for emerging tumors, there is no way now to screen people at high risk for lung cancer, much less predict who will be diagnosed with the cancer at a later date,” said Steven Belinsky, director of the Lung Cancer Program at the Lovelace Respiratory Research Institute in Albuquerque, New Mexico, who led the study.

"When perfected and validated, this kind of test holds great promise for identifying people with lung cancer early enough to successfully treat them,” he added in a statement.

Writing in the March 15 issue of Cancer Research, Belinsky and colleagues said their test identified 65 percent of patients who developed symptoms of lung cancer within 18 months, but also falsely tagged 35 percent of cancer-free people who volunteered as “controls.”

The test looks at the DNA in lung cells in sputum. Certain genes are known to be silenced or turned off in lung cancer.

Lung cancer is by far the most common cause of cancer death in the United States and much of the world. The American Cancer Society says that in 2006 there will be an estimated 174,470 new cases of lung cancer and it will kill 162,460 people.

Only 15 percent of lung cancer patients survive for more than five years, in part because it causes few symptoms early on and most people are not diagnosed until after the tumors have spread.

“Because most people are diagnosed when their cancer is advanced, they may not benefit from surgery, chemotherapy or radiation, which is why median survival from diagnosis is only 13 months,” said Belinsky.

“But lung tumors that can be surgically removed are associated with a five-year survival rate of more than 60 percent.”

The test looks for chemical silencing of six genes known to be inactivated at different stages of lung cancer development—P16, PAX5-beta, MGMT, DAPK, GATA5 and RASSF1A. Patients with three or more of these silenced genes in sputum had a 6.5-fold increase risk of a lung cancer diagnosis within 18 months.

A patient testing positive for the test would receive a follow-up bronchoscopy or an X-ray to look for tumors, Belinsky said.

RELATED STORIES:
Who should get screened for lung cancer?   Gold nanotech breath test may show lung cancer early   New targeted therapy adds benefit to erlotinib in some patients with advanced lung cancer   Roche’s Tarceva helps lung cancer patients   Lung cancer death rates in lifelong non-smokers   Age no bar to benefits of lung cancer chemo   Advances in lung cancer research announced at conference   Lung Cancer: Treatment of Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer in the Elderly   Lung cancer patients fight stigma   Lung cancer tied to family risk of other cancers   University of Colorado Cancer Center test helps reduce risk of death in advanced lung cancer   Gene found that may predict lung cancer in smokers   New research confirms need for lung cancer testing   New hope for ways to overcome drug resistance in lung cancer   Early detection of lung cancer: New data presented at multidisciplinary meeting   Missing protein may hold lung cancer key   An “HIV-test” Equivalent for the Early Detection of Lung Cancer   Radiation-Armed Robot Rapidly Destroys Human Lung Tumors   Asian lung cancer patient survival exceeds Caucasians’ on multiple regimens   Cigar, pipe smoking may raise lung disease risk, too   Early morning smokers have increased risk of lung and head and neck cancers   Race Not Root of Disparity in Lung Cancer Between Whites and Blacks

Comments

[ + Post Your Own ]

Now you're in the public comment zone. What follows is not Armenian Medical Network's stuff; it comes from other people and we don't vouch for it. A reminder: By using this Web site you agree to accept our Terms of Service. Click here to read the Rules of Engagement.

There are no comments for this entry yet. [ + Comment here + ]