A simple blood test can detect genetic material such as the 'microRNA' that constitutes a 'signature' of lung cancer to determine whether a tumour has developed, researchers from the European Institute of Oncology (Ieo) have demonstrated.
An Ieo study entitled Cosmos II was conducted on 1,115 heavy smokers or ex smokers (including 48 people with tumours) who already took part in a previous study carried out by cancer researcher Umberto Veronesi to show the effectiveness of the Tac spiral in diagnosing lung cancer.
The latest discovery, published on the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, is likely to be considered historic since the new 'mir-Test' system not only costs less than the Tac spiral but also is less intrusive and is easy to carry out, meaning that unlike the Tac it could be used for mass screening among heavy smokers to get early diagnosis of lung tumours.
"If today one needs 10,000 Tac examinations to diagnose 100 tumours, tomorrow using the Mir test first one would only need 3108 Tac exams (on people who show positive in Mir-Tests) to have the same number of early diagnoses," said Fabrizio Bianchi, head of the Ieo's Genomic and Bio-informatic laboratory.
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