Med News Today

Test May Show if Lung Cancer Will Return

Reuters is reporting that researchers have developed a new test that predicts if lung cancer will return after surgery.

Exerpt:

The new test could save tens of thousands of lives every year by letting doctors prescribe more aggressive treatments for patients whose cancers are likely to reappear, the team of scientists who developed it at Duke University said.

Called the Lung Metagene Predictor and described in this week's
New England Journal of Medicine, the test scans non-small cell lung cancer cells' genetic material to identify patterns that occur in cancers that are likely to reappear. It is 90 percent accurate, its developers said.

Lung cancer is the most common form of cancer.

Unfortunately for Mesothelioma victims, the new test does not cover that form of cancer.

posted by nattietodd @ 8:26 AM