Blood Test May Identify Early Stage Lung Cancer

NEW YORK OCT 11, 2007 (Reuters Health) - A serological profile of seven autoantibodies commonly associated with solid tumors can detect lung cancer, even in its presymptomatic stage, offering the potential for curative treatment, investigators in Germany and the UK report.

Earlier this year, Dr. Caroline J. Chapman, at the University of Nottingham in the UK, and associates reported that levels of autoantibodies to several tumor-associated antigens are raised in the circulation of patients with early invasive breast cancer and ductal carcinoma in situ. 

In their current work, published in the October 11th Online First issue of Thorax, the investigators has extended their research to include lung cancer.  They developed a highly sensitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) incorporating seven tumor-associated antigens (p53, c-myc, HER2, NY-ESO-1, CAGE, MUC1 and GBU4-5). 

They evaluated their assay using plasma samples from 82 patients with non-small cell lung cancer, 22 with small cell lung cancer, and 50 normal controls. 

Dr. Chapman"s team reports that their "panel assay test provides an excellent level of sensitivity for the detection of lung cancer."  Sensitivity was 76% and specificity was 92%.

In pretreatment samples, the assay detected all three stage I tumors, all three stage II tumors, and eight of nine lymph node-negative cancers. 

In analyzing responses to individual antigens, Dr. Chapman and associates observed that inclusion of the more general cancer antigens (p53, c-myc and HER2) was of low value in this patient population.

On the other hand, "measurement of the autoantibody response to the MUC1 core peptide was integral to the panel assays and was the most sensitive assay in all the histological subtypes of the samples studied."

The investigators believe that their assay can be further optimized by including other lung cancer-specific antigens, thereby increasing its value for screening and diagnosis of lung cancer in its early curable stages. 

SOURCE:

• Thorax 2007.