Biomarker testing sees a 40% drop in deaths during trials
Credit: University of St Andrews.
2025 has opened with good news for the medical sector. It will soon be possible for lung cancer, with its estimated 2 million new cases and 1.76 million deaths yearly, to be detected in its early stages.
Led by Dr. Frank Sullivan, Professor of Primary Care Medicine at the University of St Andrews School of Medicine, and assisted by the NHS and the Universities of Aberdeen, Dundee, Glasgow, and Nottingham, the University of St Andrews’ School of Medicine has recently produced a study, conducted on 12,000 volunteers with a history of smoking, that has led to groundbreaking discoveries.
Credit: Johnson & Johnson.
The study, published on January 8 in PLoS ONE, opens the door for a potential system of diagnosis that expects to diminish the number of premature deaths due to lung cancer and related illnesses.
It has demonstrated that the use of biomarker testing (also referred to as a “liquid biopsy”) can lead to an earlier detection of lung cancer (which is, usually, only found in advanced stages) through focusing on the individual's risk; in turn, this leads to a 40% reduction in deaths over five years.
This non-invasive method of detection is essentially a measurable indicator of biological processes, which flags signals of disease before symptoms appear according to substances, such as proteins found in blood or urine.
Going forward, the study hopes to enhance the screening systems currently being implemented and developed through its findings about biomarker testing.
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