Sunday, November 8, 2009

Ashley Desjardins- Simple blood test spots early stages of Lung Cancer




Currently, in the United States over 150,000 people die of Lung Cancer. This makes it the cancer with the highest death rate, followed closely by colon, prostate, and breast cancer. The reason it is so dangerous is because before symptoms due to the tumor show up, such as coughing up blood, the cancer has spread. A recent scientific discovery has been made that would allow 99% of these cases to be detected and possibly treated to avoid the devastating results of this disease.
This innovation, called the LC Detect, was developed by Mark Semenuk, a researcher at Panacea Pharmaceuticals in Gaithersburg, Maryland. It consists of a simple blood test that measures levels of the protein human aspartyl beta-hydroxylase (HAAH).This is a protein that is visible in all patients with lung cancer but rarely in healthy patients. Scientists believe that HAAH has several properties that make it cancer causing. One is that it travels to the surface of a cell which makes it more susceptible to chemical signals that promote growth. Also, if it stays on the surface for too long then it can fail to mature properly and can become cancerous, as well as the levels in the blood getting too high. The high levels can be detected when certain antibodies are put into the blood that change color when they bind to the protein. Abnormal levels that would be picked up are anything more than 3 nanograms of HAAH per milliliter of blood.
While this test alone cannot determine the existence of cancer, when it is paired with chest x-rays, CT scans, and other imaging technologies the results are almost always definite, as to whether or not the person has cancer. This can then help the doctor decide if treatment is possible and if the disease is curable.
In one experiment, 303 people’s blood was tested, 160 of these people were known to have lung cancer at various stages. The test accurately diagnosed the existence of cancer in all of these patients, except for one.
In another study, 60 patients, 15 of whom had the earliest stage of lung cancer were tested. All 15 cases were detected, proving that this test can accurately detect the illness early on.
What attracted me to this was the fact that it is so deadly because there are no symptoms until it is too late. With this test people may have more of a chance of surviving and it could no longer be a death sentence because it could be detected early on.

Works Cited
Simple blood test spots early stage Lung Cancer. New Scientist, 18 Sept. 2007. Web. 7 Nov. 2009. .

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