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. With the funding of this research project, the team aims to further develop this technique by creating 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. Squamous cell lung cancer is typically diagnosed at late stages. It has a high mortality rate and few treatment advances in recent years. But if we can stage-shift the diagnosis of squamous cell lung cancer to the earlier stages, we could revolutionize patient care.”
The blood test the team is working toward is also likely to have benefits in the diagnosis of lung cancer. It 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. Unfortunately, only 22% of lung cancer is diagnosed in the earliest stage of the disease.
“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. “And here, we have dedicated researchers with a possible solution in hand. It will be exciting to see where this work takes us.”
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 disease when it is most treatable.