Re: Computed Tomography Screening and Lung Cancer Outcomes

Bob wrote:


Lung Cancer Screening Test Called Exciting

from the Chicago Tribune (Registration Required)

Scientists may be close to being able to predict who will develop lung
cancer, a development that could prevent tens of thousands of deaths a
year
in the U.S.

Using a molecular test called a microarray, a research team from
Boston
University has come up with an 80-gene "signature" that can identify
lung
cancer in smokers at a very early stage. More important, the team
showed
that it is possible to detect precancerous changes in normal tissue.

"It's like a molecular Pap smear," said Dr. Avrum Spira, who led the
investigation. ...His preliminary study appears in this month's issue
of
the journal Nature Medicine. The next step, Spira said, is a large
clinical
trial "to get FDA approval for an early detection tool."

To read more: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-
0703070076mar07,1,6508711.story

Or: http://tinyurl.com/yrmyhk



There are a lot of early detection tools of one sort or another that have come out or are in development. I hear about them on the Bulletin Board of Oral Pathology (I am a dentist) where there is a high level (I think justified) in the potential of some of these. Hopefully some good tests will make it through.
My dad enrolled in a research study at MSKCC where he gets bloods drawn periodically. They are looking at an immunologic marker for some lung ca and particularly the levels found in the circulating blood, and how it responds to surgical resection--the aim being I suppose not only as a detection tool for primary cancer but also for recurrence.

Steve




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bob
.

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