Blood test could detect lung cancer earlier

Did you know lung cancer kills more Americans each year than any other form of cancer?

The problem is lung cancer is hard to detect until it's too late. But that may be thanks to a revolutionary approach that could save lives.

Even though rehab can be a challenge, Robin Skinner is glad to be here. She had part of a lung removed because of cancer discovered purely by chance during a routine exam.

Robin says, "Cancer did run in the family, but I wasn't expecting it. I had no symptoms to knowthat I had cancer."

Many patients don't realize they have lung cancer until it's advanced. But the key to survival is finding it and removing it early.

Dr. Carlo Croce with the James Cancer Hospital & Solove Research Institute says, "The probability of cure, by removing the tumor from the lung of the patient, is very, very high. Otherwise, the probability of cure is very low."

Right now, the best way to find lung tumors is with a spiral CT scan. But those are often prescribed only afterthere are signs of trouble.

But Dr. Croce and his research team have found a new approach, one that uses a simple blood test.

They followed more than a thousand smokers and discovered that, in just a few drops of blood, they could detect signs of lung cancer in some patients a full 2 yearsbefore they were visible on a scan.

But that's not all they found. Dr. Croce says, “With this method we can determine that a tumor is developing, before a spiral CT, but we have also an indication of how bad that small tumor is."

Knowing how aggressive a tumor might be, could soon allow doctors to be more aggressive with their treatments, all thanks to a simple sample of blood.

Doctors expect the blood test for lung cancer to be available to patients in the near future.