Early signs that a patient’s lung cancer may spread and become untreatable can be picked up in samples of their blood and tumour, according to a trio of papers published in Nature Medicine today (Monday).
“Thanks to these findings we know much more about how lung cancer changes, spreads and evades treatment. As our collaboration continues, we will build on these discoveries, ultimately developing tests to guide and improve the way lung cancer is treated in the future.” - Professor Charles Swanton
The three studies are all part of Cancer Research UK’s £14million TRACERx project, which aims to understand how lung cancer cells change over time and become resistant to treatment.
Together, the new findings provide clues as to which patients could be safely treated with milder therapies, such as surgery alone, and which may need additional treatments including chemotherapy. The discoveries could also help researchers develop new ways to treat the more aggressive forms of lung cancer.