A blood test may help determine if nodules detected during CT scans are lung cancer, researchers report.
Annual screenings of patients at high risk for lung cancer can catch tumors early and improve a patient’s long-term prognosis. However, low-dose computer tomography (LDCT) has a high false-positive rate that can lead to unnecessary biopsies.
The researchers found a biomarker in the blood that can complement LDCT by distinguishing non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) from benign nodules without an invasive biopsy.
“It’s a simple blood test that checks for two things: circulating tumor cells (CTCs) that detach from a primary tumor and circulate in the blood, and tumor-macrophage fusion (TMF) cells that have been determined to be highly prognostic for poor survival after lung cancer surgery,” says study author Jussuf Kaifi, a cancer surgeon at MU Health Care and an assistant professor of surgery at the University of Missouri School of Medicine….