Clnical Trials In The USA And China In A New Gene-Based Test For Lung Cancer Show Survival

Clinical trials in the United States and China have shown that a new gene-based test for patients with lung cancer beats standard methods in predicting survival, researchers reported Friday.
The findings, published in the British medical journal The Lancet, should help doctors to make more accurate prognoses and better choices for treatment, the scientists said.
Lung cancer is the most lethal type of the disease worldwide, claiming some 1.4 million lives more than breast, colon and prostate cancers combined - each year.
The experimental test measures the activity of fourteen genes within cancerous tissue, and is especially effective is assessing a form called non-squamous non-small cell cancer, commonly brought on by tobacco use.
"This has the potential to help hundreds of thousands of people every year to survive longer," said David Jablons, the main architect of the study and a professor at the University of California in San Francisco (UCSF).
Currently, doctors classify early-stage lung cancers by their size, location and microscopic profile.
Known as staging, this type of assessment guides decisions on the use of supplementary treatment including chemotherapy after cancerous tissue is removed.
A more precise prognosis would mean "more people who might benefit from additional therapy could receive it after surgery, before any residual cancer has had a chance to grow," Jablons explained in a statement.