A simple blood test could help to diagnose and characterise the most aggressive form of lung cancer, scientists have revealed.
A study led by CRUK Manchester Institute Cancer Biomarker Centre researchers at the University of Manchester, UK, focused on a new sensitive blood test to detect, characterise and monitor Small Cell Lung Cancer (SCLC).
Working with colleagues at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, USA, the team developed a method to analyse blood samples and pick up methylation, which change early on in the growth of cancers.
They also developed a computational method to assess which methylation modifications were present.
Writing in *Nature Cancer*, they show how they made their method sensitive enough to find methylation modifications in the very low levels of circulating tumour DNA (ctDNA), even in patients whose tumours were diagnosed at the earliest stage.
The new blood test could also classify which type of SCLC an individual has, which would further support the potential for more personalised treatment options.
Professor Caroline Dive who led the Cancer Research UK funded study, said: “SCLC is a terrible disease, causing so much anguish to patients and their families. We think this blood test could be really useful in future clinical trials of new therapies to predict and monitor treatment responses.”
Professor Charles Rudin, chief of thoracic oncology at Memorial Sloane Kettering Cancer Center who leads the global consortium that defined the different types of SCLC, said the study is believed to be the first to show that DNA methylation analysis of a blood sample can identify the SCLC molecular subtypes.
“Though further validation is clearly now needed in a larger independent patient cohort, this blood test could one day assist clinicians in choosing better treatments for SCLC, which is currently notoriously difficult to manage,” he added.
Dr Marianne Baker, Research Information Manager at Cancer Research UK said: “Many people with small cell lung cancer are diagnosed too late to be eligible for surgery, and this reduces their chances of survival. We urgently need ways to detect it earlier and blood tests like this have the potential to help us achieve this goal.
“While more research is needed to be sure these tests will work in practice, it’s exciting to see them moving closer to clinical trials and to helping people with SCLC.”
Chemi F, Pearce SP, Clipson A et al. cfDNA methylome profiling for detection and subtyping of small cell lung cancers. *Nature Cancer* 24 August 2022
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