Spot Lung and Ovarian Cancers Early

This week, researchers at Boston University Medical Centre and St James’ Hospital, Dublin, announced that they have found a test that might be able to detect lung cancer from its early stages.

Using scrapings from the lungs of smokers or former smokers, researchers identified 80 genetic changes that can serve as a biomarker or genetic signature, indicating early lung cancer.

The test was about 83 per cent to 95 per cent accurate at identifying patients with early stage lung cancer in the initial trial of 200 patients. Lung cancer is currently the leading cause of death from cancer in the world. Some 80 per cent to 85 per cent of patients die within the first five years of diagnosis, largely because they are diagnosed too late.

This test could result in early intervention and hence a better outcome. There was other good news as a new test for ovarian cancer has been formulated that could detect it in its early stages.

Researchers in the United States have come up with a blood test that can measure six proteins associated with the cancer. The test could catch ovarian cancer in stages 1 and 2 when the five-year survival rate is as high as 90 per cent. When the ovarian cancer reaches stages 3 and 4, the five-year survival rate is only 20 per cent.

According to Dr See Hui Ti, a consultant at the National Cancer Centre, the only tumor marker used as a test for ovarian cancer now is the CA-125, which has to be used in conjunction with an ultrasound scan of the ovaries. She said that it has been in the last five years that new proteins have been discovered with the potential of detecting ovarian cancer early.

In a group of about 500 subjects, this test had been an overall accuracy of 99 per cent in detecting cancer. Both these tests will be undergoing trails to explore their potential further.