Blood-Based Marker Plus PLCO Risk Model Can ID Lethal Lung Cancer

THURSDAY, July 13, 2023 (HealthDay News) -- A blood-based biomarker panel combined with the Prostate, Lung, Colorectal, and Ovarian (PLCO) risk model (PLCO_m2012) can identify individuals at high risk of lethal lung cancer, according to a study published online June 28 in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

Ehsan Irajizad, Ph.D., from the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, and colleagues used data from an established model that combines four-marker protein panel (4MP) with the PLCO_m2012 assayed in predignostic sera from 552 lung cancer cases and 2,193 noncases from the PLCO cohort. Seventy percent of the lung cancer cases died of lung cancer. The cumulative incidence of lung cancer death and hazard ratios were calculated based on the 4MP and PLCO_m2012 risk scores at predefined six-year risk thresholds of 1.0 and 1.7 percent.

The researchers found that for risk prediction of lung cancer death, the area under receiver operating characteristic (AUROC) curve estimate of the 4MP + PLCO_m2012 model was 0.88. In individuals with 4MP + PLCO_m2012 scores above the 1.0 percent six-year threshold, the cumulative incidence of lung cancer death was significantly higher. For test-positive cases, the corresponding subdistributional and lung cancer death-specific hazard ratios were 9.88 and 10.65, respectively.

"For individuals who currently are not eligible for lung cancer screening, a positive test may help to identify those possibly at risk for lung cancer death," a coauthor said in a statement. "We envision this as a tool that could be deployed worldwide, as the future of early detection of this disease."

Several authors disclosed ties to the pharmaceutical industry.

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