In the recent studies, researchers could be able to predict if the lung cancer will spread using a blood sample or tumor sample. Three separate scientific papers have been published that delved into how the lung cancer cells evolve and spread. These studies indicate which patients could be treated with milder therapies and which may require additional treatments such as chemotherapy. These discoveries could help in development of new ways to treat more aggressive form of lung cancer.
The trio of studies is a part of Cancer Research UK’s £14 million TRACERx project. This project aims to understand the change of lung cancer cells with passage of time and how they become resistant to lung cancer treatment.
One of these scientific papers revealed patients with more tumor cells in their blood were likely to cause lung cancer spread. The researchers wanted to see if it would be possible to predict whose lung cancer would come back even after treatment. The second study was conducted by Dhruva Biswas and colleagues from The Francis Crick Institute, London, and UCL Cancer Institute. They studied lung tumor samples and then found clues as to which cancers were more likely to return after treatment. They could predict how aggressive the cancer would be by analysis the genetics of a tumor.
The third study was carried out by Professional Benny Chain and his colleagues. They were focusing on immune systems of lung cancer patients. They found that the cells of immune system called T cells were gathered among cancer cells. They also found that tumors release a mixture of different cancer cells which confuses the immune system.
All these studies published in the Journal Nature Medicine could help in identifying those who are at most risk of aggressive form of lung cancer.
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