Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death worldwide. The only way to dependably detect lung cancer early is through lung cancer screening, which uses a yearly CT scan of the lungs in those who have a history of heavy smoking. In addition, about 3% of the US undergoes a CT of the chest yearly. Regardless of whether the scan was done for screening, around a third show pulmonary nodules. Pulmonary nodules could be cancers, but the vast majority are old scars, small infections, or other non-cancerous lesions. It can be hard to sort out which nodules are worrisome for cancer and which ones can be safely followed or ignored. We have some clues based on the patient and CT (including size, sha...

Read More

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death worldwide. The only way to dependably detect lung cancer early is through lung cancer screening, which uses a yearly CT scan of the lungs in those who have a history of heavy smoking. In addition, about 3% of the US undergoes a CT of the chest yearly. Regardless of whether the scan was done for screening, around a third show pulmonary nodules. Pulmonary nodules could be cancers, but the vast majority are old scars, small infections, or other non-cancerous lesions. It can be hard to sort out which nodules are worrisome for cancer and which ones can be safely followed or ignored. We have some clues based on the patient and CT (including size, shape, and location) which allow us to calculate an approximate risk, but these calculators do not work perfectly. We believe we can improve on these calculators by using blood tests and advanced artificial-intelligence tools to analyze the CTs. We aim to combine these to provide more accurate information to determine which nodules are worrisome for cancer. We have two blood tests that we believe will work for this. The first is a simple blood test to 4 proteins. We have worked on this test for nearly a decade and have shown that it can tell us who is at high risk for cancer and should undergo screening. In two smaller sets of blood collected from people with pulmonary nodules, it was able to improve on nodule size alone to tell us which nodules could be cancer. We also have developed a newer test, which is an advanced measurement of 4 metabolites that can improve on the protein panel. We will a variety of sets of blood samples, taken from people undergoing lung cancer screening as well as those coming into a pulmonologist's office for evaluation for nodules, to test if these blood tests can alter what clinical actions we would take for a specific nodule. We hope to develop these into a clinical test that can be used broadly for those with pulmonary nodules.

Read Less