Researchers Developing New Ways of Detecting Cancer

Usually, lung cancer is detected when it's in a fairly advanced stage and it is difficult to cure. Researchers are working to detect cancer at at earlier and earlier, and they're hoping that soon a blood test will tell doctors whether or not their patients have the disease.

Whenever cancer is present in a patient's body, the immune system naturally starts producing antibodies that target antigens present on lung tumors. At The University of Nottingham in England, Dr. Caroline Chapman is working with colleagues to evaluate blood samples for these antibodies, with the hopes of identifying lung cancer in people who otherwise would have no clue that they're ill.

The blood of 154 patients has been screened for seven different cancer related antigens so far in the UK and Germany. As reported in the medical journal Thorax, out of the 104 patients with lung cancer, 76 percent had at high levels of antibodies. Furthermore, 89 percent of patients whose cancer had not yet spread to the lymph nodes had detectable levels of the antibodies in their blood.

“A diagnostic test for lung cancer is of particular importance owing to the late stage at which patients currently present with this disease and the fact that this disease will cause significant social burden for at least 20 years, even if all smoking were discontinued today,” concluded the researchers.

Those working on the project found that three of the seven antigens that occur in many types of cancer “did not add significantly to the panel assay.” However, substituting different antigens specific to lung cancer might improve the potential of the study.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more men and women die from lung cancer each year than from any other type of cancer. In 2004, the most recent year for which statistics are available, lung cancer killed more people than colon cancer, prostate cancer and breast cancer combined.

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