LAUSR

A blood test based on a 4-marker protein panel, combined with a personalized lung cancer risk assessment, more accurately determines who is likely to benefit from lung cancer screening than the current 2021 and 2013 US Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) recommendations, according to a study recently published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.1 The blood test was developed at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas, and was integrated with the logistic regression lung cancer risk prediction model PLCOm2012, which accounts for smoking history. The new test was found to be more sensitive and specific than the USPSTF criteria. The study, led by researchers from MD Anderson, included participants from the Prostate, Lung, Colorectal, and Ovarian (PLCO) Cancer Screening Trial who had a smoking history of at least 10 pack-years. Researchers found that, if implemented, the blood-test-plus model would have identified 9.2% more lung cancer cases for screening and reduced referrals to screening among noncases by 13.7% in comparison with the 2021 USPSTF criteria. “We recognize that only a small percentage of people who are eligible for lung cancer screening through an annual lowdose CT [computed tomography] scan have actually been screened. Moreover, CT screening is not readily available in most countries. So, for many years our goal has been to develop a simple blood test that can be used first to determine the need for screening and to make screening for lung cancer that much more effective,” says study coauthor Samir M. Hanash, MD, PhD, professor of clinical cancer prevention and the leader of the Red and Charline McCombs Institute for the Early Detection and Treatment of Cancer at MD Anderson. (Dr. Hanash is an inventor on a patent application related to the blood test.) The USPSTF recommends that adults who are at high risk for lung cancer receive a low-dose CT scan each year, a strategy that was shown to reduce lung cancer deaths in the 2011 National Lung Screening Trial. The 2021 USPSTF criteria apply to adults aged 50 to 80 years who have a smoking history of at least 20 pack-years and currently smoke or have quit within the past 15 years.