Research award supports transformative early detection technology to increase lung cancer-related survival rates
Our Bureau
Washington, DC
LUNGevity Foundation and Rising Tide Foundation for Clinical Cancer Research are proud to support Abhijit Patel, MD, PhD, Yale University School of Medicine, with the 2024 Rising Tide Foundation for Clinical Cancer Research / LUNGevity Foundation Lung Cancer Early Detection Award to dramatically reduce lung cancer-related mortality.
Dr. Patel and his close collaborator, Steven Skates, PhD, at Massachusetts General Hospital, have developed an exciting technical breakthrough that accurately measures tiny amounts of DNA fragments from cancer cells that are in the bloodstream and aims to create a model that links the presence of these fragments in the blood with the presence of lung cancer in patients. In addition, they are working toward creating an algorithm that tracks the changes in a patient’s blood over time. Taken together, this work lays the groundwork for a routine blood test for lung cancer to detect it at its earliest stages when it is the most curable.
“This approach has additional advantages that can be a game-changer for the field of lung cancer,” explains Upal Basu Roy, PhD, MPH, executive director of LUNGevity Research. “For example, if this blood test is used with the current screening tests, it can detect some types of lung cancer, such as squamous cell, that are often missed by screening.”
The blood test could be used to clarify the status of incidental pulmonary nodules and help reduce the number of unnecessary lung biopsies or follow-up tests.
The likelihood of surviving for five years or more after a lung cancer diagnosis is 27%. But if lung cancer is caught early, before it spreads, the five-year survival rate jumps to 64% and in some cases is curable.
“There is a clear and pressing need to improve early detection of lung cancer,” said Dr. Alexandre Alencar, head of cancer research programs at Rising Tide Foundation for Clinical Cancer Research.
LUNGevity Foundation and Rising Tide Foundation have joined together in this collaborative partnership to stage-shift lung cancer so that the majority of patients are diagnosed in the early stages of the disease when it is most treatable.
