Test may identify cancers most likely to return

SCIENTISTS have developed a test that can identify aggressive cancers most likely to return after surgery.

Medical experts believe the discovery could help provide patients with tailored treatment to boost their chances of survival.

Consultant oncologist at St James’s Hospital in Dublin and chair of the British Thoracic Oncology Group Dr Ken O’Byrne described the test as the future for the management of all cancers.

“With increased understanding of the molecular biology of the cancer — how it grows and spreads, we can design tests to enable us to select patients for specific treatments,” he said.

While the test developed by researchers in the US has been used to scan the genetic profile of people with early stage non-small-cell lung cancer, it may be possible to apply similar techniques to any cancer.

Currently, the treatment for people with the early stage non-small-cell lung cancer, a disease that accounts for about four out of every five lung cancer cases, depends on tumour size and whether or not it has spread to other parts of the body.

Every year, around 1,500 people are newly diagnosed with lung cancer but just 250 are suitable for surgery. The five-year survival rate is between 5 and 10%.

Doctors are now hoping that growing knowledge about the genes fuelling the cancers will lead to better ways to tell who really needs chemotherapy and to identify new targets for treatment.

A team based at the Duke University Medical Centre in the US looked at early stage non-small-cell lung cancers and found there was a significant difference in the genetic patterns between the tumours that are likely to recur and those that will not.

Duke University researchers, whose work is published in the latest edition of the New England Journal of Medicine, used the genome test to look at the tumours in 129 patients and found that the test was up to 90% accurate at predicting the recurrence of the disease.

A larger study of 1,200 lung cancer patients will start in January in the US and Canada to further evaluate the new test.

* The Irish Cancer Society national cancer helpline can be contacted at 1800-200700 or their website can be accessed at www.cancer.ie.