Lung cancer test predicts likelihood of death, says UC-San Francisco

by Symptom Advice on February 3, 2012

A new lung cancer test predicts the likelihood of death from lung cancer more accurately than conventional methods, according to two large studies by an international team led by scientists at UC San Francisco.

This test, which measures the activity of 14 genes in cancerous tissue, could more accurately guide treatment for people with the disease. Lung cancer is the most common cause of cancer death in the United States and the world.

“It’s quite exciting,” said co-author Dr. David Jablons, who leads the Thoracic Oncology Program at UCSF, in a news release. “This has the potential to help hundreds of thousands of people every year survive longer.”

The two studies, the largest ever conducted on the molecular genetics of lung cancer, were published in the Jan. 27 issue of the British medical journal The Lancet.

Today, doctors assess early-stage lung cancers by their size, location and microscopic appearance. This information, known as staging, guides additional treatment following surgery.

If doctors could more precisely gauge prognosis, more people who might benefit from additional therapy could receive it immediately after surgery — before any residual cancer has a chance to grow.

One study analyzed tissue from 433 people in Northern California with early-stage lung cancer. The other study involved 1,006 people with early-stage lung cancer in China. in both trials, the team showed that the test could accurately predict whether the odds of death within five years of lung surgery were low, intermediate, or high.

More people die from lung cancer annually than from breast, colon and prostate cancers combined. It claims more than 150,000 American lives annually and accounts for some 1.4 million deaths around the world.

About 85 percent of Americans with lung cancer die within five years of diagnosis. Most cases result from exposure to cigarette smoke — but other causes include exposure to asbestos, chemicals, environmental factors and genetic susceptibility.

One of the challenges of treating the disease is that it is difficult to detect in its early stages, when it is most treatable, because it usually does not cause symptoms.

The prognostic test would address the inability to identify these patients, Jablons said. but even people whose cancer is detected at the earliest stages face serious odds.

Contact Lisa M. Krieger at 408-920-5565.

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