Test may catch lung cancer early

A simple blood test may be able to detect lung cancer in its early stages, which would represent a promising strategy to improve survival rates, researchers said.

The two-year survival rate averages only about 15%, mainly because the disease, which kills 1.3 million people globally a year, is often diagnosed in advanced stages.

Preliminary findings of a study presented in Chicago at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology suggest that a specific genetic profile for lung cancer is present in the blood and can be detected with 88% accuracy.

Dr. Thomas Zander of the University Clinic in Cologne in Germany, who led the research, said more studies were needed to validate the findings.