Recognize lung cancer with blood test in good time

Blood test gives information about lung cancer risk

06/04/2015

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in Europe. Approximately every two minutes in the EU, a person dies as a result of lung cancer. Since sufferers usually show no typical symptoms, lung cancer is often discovered late, so that therapies usually no longer help. A new blood test could detect the lung cancer risk sooner in the future.

More deaths from lung cancer
Although cancer mortality is declining overall in Germany as well as in the European Union (EU), this does not apply to all cancers. Lung cancer kills more women than breast cancer, epidemiologists from Italy had recently reported. The well-known German film director Helmut Dietl recently died of lung cancer after suffering for years. If a tumor in the lungs is already causing symptoms, it is usually too late to beat the disease.

Recognize cancer before abnormalities show up
In this country around 40,000 people die each year from lung cancer. The number of new cases is 55,000. Thousands of lives could be saved if lung cancer - similar to bowel cancer - could be detected very early by an investigation. That is the aim of the Israeli researcher Tamar Paz-Elizur from the Weizmann Institute in Rehovot, as the newspaper reports. The scientist is working according to the information on a test, with the lung cancer can already be detected, if on x-rays, nothing unusual is to be seen.

Detect tumor in the early stages
„With a simple blood test, people with a significantly higher risk of lung cancer can be identified“, explained the researcher. Thus, an impending disease can be seen even before it breaks out and a tumor in the early stages anyway. Thus, even with a therapy can be legally begun. Together with her research colleague and husband Zvi Livneh, Tamar Paz-Elizur wanted to understand the repair mechanisms by which cells heal themselves. Every cell in the human body causes up to 50,000 DNA damage every day, sometimes causing the development of cancer cells. However, the cells also have repair tools, so it usually does not get to the point where a tumor grows.

Repair enzymes play a crucial role
In their research, scientists came across so-called repair enzymes, including one called OGG1, which appears to play a pivotal role in the fight against lung cancer. Although paz-elizur was able to demonstrate that people with a low OGG1 concentration had a five-fold higher risk for lung cancer, but this factor is still too small to build meaningful screening for it. The researchers, however, managed to make the method more accurate. The scientists discovered two other markers, which also show a reduced resistance to lung cancer, the repair enzymes MPG and APE1. „Because of the first letters of OGG1, MPG and APE1, we usually refer to these three markers simply as OMA“, so Livneh.

Blood test with high hit rate
With the help of the blood test, according to the figures, people with a high hit rate can be identified who will soon contract lung cancer or are already ill. In their study, researchers with a total of one hundred lung cancer patients and non-infected people have shown that people with a low OMA protection factor are up to 20 times more likely to develop lung cancer. Larger clinical trials must now prove that an OMA blood test can actually be used effectively for the early detection or even the prevention of lung cancer. One could then send those who are at high risk, targeted to a computed tomography examination to find even the smallest tissue changes.

Medicines for the defense against cancer cells
Tamar Paz Elizur also has the development of new therapies in mind. Those who understand the workings of the repair enzymes may also be able to develop drugs that help the body fight off cancer cells. The researchers are also concerned here first with the lung cancer. „If we succeed there“, so the scientist, „In principle, it should also be possible to defeat other forms of cancer with similar strategies.“ When it comes to lung cancer strategies, it is important to keep in mind that many cases can be avoided by doing more to stop smoking. Experts believe that about 85 percent of the diseases are related to tobacco use. That's why stricter anti-smoking laws are being called for again and again. Not only because of the increased risk of various types of cancer, but also because smoking is considered to be a significant risk factor for numerous other diseases, such as smoker's or smoker's cough, asthma, chronic bronchitis and heart attack and stroke. (Ad)

Image: Dieter Schütz