(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- A genetic test to determine a patient’s risk of
lung cancer recurrence is on the horizon.
Columbia University researchers recently tested five genetic profiles to see how
well they predict the likelihood cancer will return in patients whose non-small
cell lung cancer was discovered early and surgically removed. This common type
of lung cancer accounts for roughly 80 percent of all lung cancers and recurs
often, even when treated early. “If we knew specifically in which patients the
cancer was likely to come back, we could recommend more aggressive therapy to
those patients,” lead researcher William Bulman, M.D., a clinical instructor of
medicine at the Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York, was
quoted as saying.
The five gene signatures were tested on 21 patients with squamous or
adenocarinoma tumors. Researchers say the signatures were accurate 40 to 80
percent of the time, differing with the type of tumor.
“Our findings not only indicate that genetic signatures have clinical utility in
personalizing the treatment of lung cancer, but also that it may be necessary to
use different gene-based risk predictors with different tumor subtypes,” Dr.
Bulman said. He says this new information adds to the larger effort to discover
why some early stage lung cancers progress and metastasize while others don’t.
SOURCE: American Thoracic Society’s International Conference, Toronto, May
16-21, 2008
