Simple blood test 'could reduce number of lung cancer deaths'

A study has suggested that blood testing individuals at high risk of lung cancer could lead to a significant decrease in mortality rates.

Researchers from the University of St Andrews School of Medicine found that testing for biomarkers in the blood allowed for earlier detection of the disease and a "major reduction in deaths".

Lung cancer is typically diagnosed late due to the absence of symptoms in the early stages, which often results in a prognosis where patients have only a 10% chance of surviving beyond five years post-diagnosis. Biomarkers, such as specific proteins in blood or urine, can indicate underlying biological activity and may signal the presence of lung cancer before symptoms manifest, according to the researchers.

Dr Frank Sullivan, professor of primary care medicine at the University of St Andrews, said of the research published on Wednesday: “This study, along with others using imaging techniques, shows that earlier diagnosis of lung cancer is now possible. That is good news because, if caught early enough, the improved treatments now available have a much higher chance of success.”

Researchers suggested the biomarker test, which looks at autoantibodies in the blood, could be used to identify who needs a subsequent CT scan. The blood test is a straightforward method that "any laboratory anywhere in the world can do fairly cheaply", he explained. The broad trial included 12,208 participants who were either smokers or former smokers aged between 50 and 75 and at an increased risk for the disease.

It involved screening one set of participants for abnormal autoantibodies using the EarlyCDT-Lung test every six months over two years, while another group did not receive this test and proceeded with standard clinical practice. Following both sets for five years, results indicated that fatalities from any cause as well as deaths specifically due to lung cancer were notably lower in individuals diagnosed within the first two years following their initial EarlyCDT-Lung test.

Out of the early-detected lung cancer cases, there were 34 deaths in total and 29 from lung cancer, compared to the control group's 56 total deaths, 49 of which were due to lung cancer. Consequently, there was a 40% decrease in mortality from all causes, including lung cancer, among those tested with the EarlyCDT-Lung test, according to the researchers.

The trial, published in the Plos One journal, was a collaborative effort involving colleagues from the NHS and the universities of Dundee, Glasgow, Aberdeen, and Nottingham.