09 May New Biomarker Could Change Lung Cancer Treatment Paradigm

MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Ryo Nagashio, Ph.D.
Department of Molecular Diagnostics
School of Allied Health Sciences, Kitasato University
Japan.

MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? 

Response: Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer deaths in both men and women in the United States and worldwide. The disease is associated with a poor prognosis because most lung cancers are only diagnosed at an advanced stage. The identification of patients at an early stage of cancer when it can be treated surgically is extremely important to improve prognosis.

Current biomarkers for lung cancer include carcinoma embryonic antigen (CEA), sialyl Lewis X antigen (SLX), SCC antigen, and cytokeratin fragment (CYFRA) 21-1, but these are not sensitive enough to detect tumors early.

The results of our study provide evidence that the CKAP4 protein may be a novel early sero-diagnostic marker for lung cancer. Across disease stages I-IV, the sensitivities of serum CEA, CYFRA, and SCCa are reported with 30-52, 17-82, and 24-39 percent, respectively. In this study, the sensitivity of serum CKAP4 was 81 percent in the training set and 69 percent in the validation set. These rates are higher than those of the current sero-diagnostic markers. Furthermore, the sensitivity of serum CKAP4 was also high even in stage I non-small cell lung cancer.

MedicalResearch.com: What should readers take away from your report?

Response: The use of CKAP4 as a biomarker could change current practices regarding the treatment of lung cancer patients, and the diagnostic accuracies might be markedly improved by the combination of new early-diagnostic markers including CKAP4 and conventional markers.

MedicalResearch.com: What recommendations do you have for future research as a result of this work? 

Response: By acquisition of early diagnostic markers using body fluids, it will be possible to detect early cancer in a minimally invasive manner, and lead to an improvement in patients’ quality of life.

No disclosures 

Citations:

Cytoskeleton-Associated Protein 4 Is a Novel Serodiagnostic Marker for Lung Cancer
Yanagita, Kengo et al.
The American Journal of Pathology , Volume 0 , Issue 0 ,

[wysija_form id=”3″]

The information on MedicalResearch.com is provided for educational purposes only, and is in no way intended to diagnose, cure, or treat any medical or other condition. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health and ask your doctor any questions you may have regarding a medical condition. In addition to all other limitations and disclaimers in this agreement, service provider and its third party providers disclaim any liability or loss in connection with the content provided on this website.

Last Updated on May 9, 2018 by Marie Benz MD FAAD