IMPROVE lung cancer screening by simply drawing blood to identify people who would benefit but are currently excluded from the program. We are talking about the United States, where lung cancer screening has been a reality for some time (while in Italy it has yet to start). Well: researchers from the University of Texas MD Anderson Medical Center (one of the most important centers in the world in oncology) have developed a new strategy that combines liquid biopsy with a new predictive model, and which has been shown to identify people at risk of developing lung cancer better than current selection criteria (established by the US Preventive Services Task Force first in 2013 and then in 2021).
“I have full lungs”, the campaign against disinformation on lung cancer
by Tiziana Moriconi
Objective: to better identify who is most at risk
Lung cancer screening is based on annual low-dose radiation CT scan. To date, in the US, all people between 50 and 80 years of heavy smokers (or former heavy smokers, who have quit less than 15 years) are invited to undergo this examination, with a history of 20 cigarettes a day for 20 years, on average. However, according to scientists at MD Anderson Medical Center, this selection criterion can be improved. In their study, published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, have developed a test that analyzes 4 markers present in the blood and another risk model that takes into account the age and years of cigarette smoking addiction (called PLCOm2012). They thus developed a personalized lung cancer risk assessment test.
Do you smoke? It’s time for lung cancer screening
by Tiziana Moriconi
I study
The research team conducted the study on the data and biological samples of the Cancer Screening Trial PLCO, a randomized study on prostate, lung, colorectal and ovarian cancer screening that the National Cancer Institute launched to evaluate effects of the early diagnosis program on the mortality of smokers (20 cigarettes a day for 10 years) between 55 and 74 years. The new system (liquid biopsy and PLCOm2012 model) was tested in 1,299 blood samples collected before cancer diagnosis and in 8,709 samples from people who did not develop cancer. The results? It would have identified 9.2 percent of people who would be screened annually – and who would develop lung cancer – and cut the referral for further false-positive tests by 13.7 percent. At-risk cases eligible for screening were detected with a sensitivity of 88.4% and a specificity of 56.2%, values higher than those resulting from the guidelines of the US Preventive Services Task Force (sensitivity of 78.5 % and specificity of 49.3%). “Our study shows for the first time that a simple blood test identifies who can actually benefit from lung cancer screening,” comments Sam Hanash, study author, Professor of Clinical Cancer Prevention at the McCombs Institute for the Early Detection and Treatment of Cancer at MD Anderson Medical Center: “The results tell us we are on the right track to making early detection more effective. Improving eligibility for screening by even 5% – continues Hanash – can in fact generate an incredible impact: tens of millions of people around the world could treat the disease early, when therapies are most likely to be successful “. The next step will be the validation of the test and model in a clinical study.
Lung cancer: early diagnoses are increasing in Lombardy
Early diagnosis in Italy
Lung cancer is the oncological disease that causes the highest number of deaths every year worldwide: 40,000 in Italy alone. The main reason for this high mortality is that the cancer is discovered when it is already advanced in most cases. Identifying it early is not easy and the research is very active, overseas as well as in Italy, where several projects have been carried out in recent years. Now, pandemic permitting, the National Network for lung screening is being launched: a pilot project that will initially involve 7,500 heavy smokers over 55 throughout Italy.
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