Could a Blood Test Detect Early Stages of Lung, Prostate Cancers?

A recent study shows that a simple blood test could help doctors detect early stages of lung and prostate cancers, with the ability to also identify the probability of recovery or recurrence after tumors are removed.

As cancer remains the leading cause of death in the United States, late detection of the disease can prove fatalistic for those suffering from this health issue.

Yet according to researchers from the Cleveland Clinic, they found that a simple blood test could possibly detect future problems.

Serum-free fatty acids and metabolites may be used as screening biomarkers to help diagnose early stages of cancers, as well as identify the probability of recovery and recurrence of tumor removal, according to background information from the study.   

Researchers examined 55 blood samples from patients with lung cancer and 40 patients with prostate cancer. The blood samples were then compared to those without cancer. The second half of the study involved 24 patients who were scheduled for curative lung cancer surgery and again at six and 24 hours after surgery.

Findings showed that patients with cancer had one to six times more serum-free fatty acids and metabolites in their blood than those without the disease. And the second half of the study showed that serum-fatty acids and metabolites decreased from three to 10 times within a 240-hour-period following tumor removal.

"This is an exciting first step to having an uncomplicated way to detect early stages of lung, prostate and perhaps other cancers," Daniel I. Sessler, M.D., chair of the Outcomes Research Department at Cleveland Clinic said, via a press release. "It could also be used to measure the success of tumor resection surgery, immediately after surgery and long-term for recurrence screening."

More information regarding the study can be found via the annual meeting of the American Society for Anesthesiologists.