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Screen May Detect High-Risk Lung Cancer 

Michigan scientists have developed a method of identifying which patients with early-stage lung cancer might benefit most from aggressive treatment.

Though the screening, which looks for genetic markers of aggressive cancer in tumor cells, is not yet ready for widespread use, the analysis eventually may help patients with high-risk cancers live longer, according to researcher Dr. David G. Beer. . .

That may soon change, according to findings published in the advance online edition of the journal Nature Medicine. Using technology called microarrays, which make it possible to view thousands of genes at once on a single chip, researchers at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor analyzed tumor samples from 86 patients with early- or late-stage adenocarcinoma, the most common type of non-small-cell lung cancer. Based on this analysis, Beer and colleagues compiled a list of the 50 genesmost associated with patient survival.

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