Non-invasive diagnostic and prognostic assay for early stage lung cancer

In the United States alone, one of four cancer deaths occur from lung cancer. There are now over 220,000 new cases of lung cancer and more than 155,000 deaths, and over 8 million high-risk individuals. Early detection significantly improves survival of this disease, however a  lack of lung cancer screenings and analysis precludes fast results at a low cost. Low-dose computer tomography (LD-CT) is the current standard, however it suffers from low sensitivity and specificity (55 and 81%, respectively) and can miss occult cancer (false negative) or incorrectly diagnose c ancer when it is not there (false positive). False negatives can lead to detection only at later-stages when treatment options are limited, while false positives can lead to additional, expensive testing or invasive biopsies.Scientists from the NCI ’sLaboratory of Human Carcinogenesis provides a unique, non-invasive diagnostic to detect early stage lung cancer and predict patient survival through a simple assay utilizing liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry of urine samples.  Urine samples minimize patient discomfort, unlike current early detection methods that are highly i nvasive, such as a blood or tissue biopsy or bronchoscopy, and could supplement existing LD-CT that cannot detect such early-stage nodules. The method provides  superior false-positive and false-negative rates compared to LD-CT, which suffers from low specificity and false positive rates of 80% or more.   The NCI scientist...
Source: NIH OTT Licensing Opportunities - Category: Research Authors: Source Type: research