Duke University Medical Centre scientists have developed the first genomic test to predict which patients with early-stage lung cancer will need chemotherapy to live and which patients can avoid the toxic regimen of drugs. The test has the potential to save thousands of lives each year by recommending chemotherapy for patients who are currently advised against it.
The test's promising results have initiated a landmark multi-centre clinical trial, to be led by Duke investigators next year. Patients with early-stage non-small cell lung cancer, the most common and fatal form of cancer, will receive the genomic test and its results will determine their treatment.
The new test, called the Lung Metagene Predictor, scans thousands of genes to identify patterns of gene activity in individual tumours that indicate a patient is likely to suffer a recurrence of disease. Recurrent tumours are typically fatal, so identifying at-risk patients is critical to properly treating them, said the Duke researchers.
'Using the unique genomic signatures from each tumor, our new test predicted with up to 90 percent accuracy which early-stage lung cancer patients would suffer a recurrence of their cancer and which patients would not,' said Anil Potti., an assistant professor of medicine. Researchers developed the test by analysing the activity of genes from early-stage lung cancer patients whose disease outcomes were known. The Duke scientists then validated the genomic test in 129 patients by comparing the test's predictions with the patient's actual outcomes. The test predicted their risk of recurrence with 90 percent accuracy, the study showed.
www.dukehealth.org/news/9835