The objective and the promise of this new technology is to detect lung cancer at an early stage, sufficiently in time to opt for surgery and thus optimize the chances of recovery. Developed by a team at UCLA, the technology relies on the extremely sensitive and specific electric field-induced measurement of 2 mutations of the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) in the blood of patients with lung carcinoma non-small cell (NSCLC). This relatively inexpensive platform described in the Journal of Molecular Diagnostics could enable the implementation of high-throughput assays.
The latest generations of blood tests, based on the principle of "liquid biopsy", ie analysis of the DNA circulating in the blood, have already shown potential for the early detection of lung cancer. In particular, thatbased on the large Genome Atlas databases. Thus, many teams have demonstrated that it is possible to detect lung cancer at an early stage using genome sequencing and have already raised hopes of the short-term availability of such tests in clinical routine. Here is a brand new platform for testing the blood or saliva of patients with early-stage lung cancer that identifies 2 common mutations linked to this cancer. This platform is being tested in the detection of non-small cell lung carcinoma (NSCLC), an often fatal cancer, as most cases are not diagnosed until the advanced stage when the intervention is no longer possible surgical.
A blood test to detect lung cancer earlier in the disease: the new technology called "EFIRM" is also based on the principle of non-invasive liquid biopsy. Until then, researchers had successfully measured 2 EGFR mutations (p.L858R and Exon 19del) in patients with advanced cancer. Here they manage to detect them in 248 patients with early-stage disease, i.e. pulmonary nodules determined by X-ray. Of these patients, 44 were diagnosed with stage I or stage II NSCLC and EFIRM was able to detect the p.L858R mutation in 11 of the 12 samples and the Exon 19del mutation in 7 of the 9 samples.
A sensitivity greater than 90% and a specificity of 80%: although the clinical sensitivity of EFIRM nevertheless remains "capped" by the percentage of tumors containing one or the other of the 2 variants, the team is currently developing a panel of 10 variants containing mutations expressed in 50% of lung malignancies. These new developments will further increase the spectrum of effectiveness of the test. But, in principle, the new platform could make it possible to detect tumors in patients who are still eligible for surgery.
Finally, EFIRM technology could also be used to monitor treatment and detect recurrences in patients who have already been diagnosed.
