ATS 2008, TORONTO—A simple blood test may be able to detect lung cancer in its earliest stages with unprecedented accuracy, according to new research to be presented at American Thoracic Society’s 2008 International Conference in Toronto on Tuesday, May 20.

The possibility of developing a non-invasive test to distinguish cancerous from benign lesions in the lungs has enormous implications, not just for the world of medicine, but for every individual patient who has gone through the harrowing experience of having to wait for conclusive biopsy results after preliminary testing.

“CT screening results in the detection of lung nodules in 20 to 60 percent of subjects,” said Anil Vachani, M.D., assistant professor of medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. “This high false-positive rate requires patients to undergo extensive follow-up investigations, such as serial CT scans, PET scans or biopsies. This test may be able to obviate the need for such things if it is developed into a large scale diagnostic tool.”   Read More...