?据报道，美国研究人员一种新的检测血液中肿瘤抗体的方法可能会在成为发现肺癌的新方法，这种方法能够在X射线和CT检查发现肺癌之前检测到肺癌的发生。研究人员称，通过检测患者血液标本能够在患者被确诊前数年预测非小细胞肺癌的发生。如果这种检测方法的可靠性能够被证实的话，这种方法将成为继PSA检测后第一个通过血液筛选癌症的方法。
??肯塔基州立大学Li Zhong发表在《胸部肿瘤杂志》的文章称，试验的结果表明与复杂的筛选策略联合应用，通过抗体检测可以早期预测癌症的发生。研究人员通过对人群进行检测，以筛选出可能患肺癌的对象，从而对这种方法进行评价。事实表明，这种方法正确预测了90%的病例，并且假阳性率很低。研究人员在肺癌患者被确诊为肺癌前数年采集了患者血样并进行检测。被检测的18个患者在一年、两年、三年、四年后陆续被确诊为肺癌。
??Zhong说：“通过两次这种血液检测，肺癌可以在能够被放射检测手段检测到之前的3-5年就被预测。”
英文原文：
Blood test may find early lung cancer: US study
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A blood test that looks for patterns of antibody responses to tumors may provide a way to detect lung cancer long before an X-ray or CT scan could, U.S. researchers reported on Friday.
The test correctly predicted non-small-cell lung cancer in blood samples taken from patients years before they were actually diagnosed with lung cancer, the researchers reported.
If the test's reliability can be confirmed, it might become the first new blood screen for any cancer since the PSA test. The test is licensed to Rockville, Maryland-based 20/20 GeneSystems Inc.
"These data suggest antibody profiling could be a powerful tool for early detection when incorporated into a comprehensive screening strategy," Li Zhong and colleagues at the University of Kentucky write in their report, published in the Journal of Thoracic Oncology.
When they the researchers evaluated the test in people who were being treated for lung cancer, it correctly identified 90 percent of cases, and with very few false positives in samples taken from people who did not have lung cancer.
The researchers tested blood samples taken from some of the lung cancer patients years before they were diagnosed. The test found cancer in four out of seven samples taken a year before diagnoses, and in all 18 samples taken two, three and four years earlier.
"Based on doubling times, a lung cancer can be present three to five years before reaching the conventional size limits of radiographic detection," Zhong's team points out.
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