Soon, a blood biomarker to help spot lung cancer

Doctors may very soon be able to detect lung cancer early in its stage with help of a blood biomarker.

A new study has shown that patients with stage I to stage III non-small cell lung cancer have different metabolite profiles in their blood than those of patients who are at risk but do not have lung cancer.

Researchers at Cleveland Clinic studied the blood serum of 284 subjects, 48 percent of whom were female with a mean age of 68 years. The subjects were diagnosed with adenocarcinoma or squamous lung cancer: 44 percent of those at stage I, 17 percent at stage II, and 39 percent at stage III. A control group of 194 patients-who matched the cancer patients in age, gender, smoking history, COPD, diabetes, and blood lipids were at risk for lung cancer but did not have the disease. There were 534 metabolites identified, with the concentration of 149 metabolites differing significantly between the cancer and control groups.

Peter J. Mazzone, MD, FCCP, Director of the Lung Cancer Program for the Respiratory Institute at Cleveland Clinic said that the study results showed that patients with lung cancer had altered metabolic processes. This information could lead to the development of a diagnostic biomarker for early detection of lung cancer.

The study abstract has been released in an online supplement of the journal CHEST.