Researchers at the University of Hawai'i discovered a blood biomarker panel of 31 small non-coding RNAs that can predict lung cancer risk up to 10 years before clinical diagnosis.
- The blood test achieved 95% overall accuracy with 93% sensitivity and 100% specificity in detecting lung cancer risk.
- The biomarker remains predictive even when accounting for age, sex, ethnicity, smoking intensity and smoking duration.
Researchers at the University of Hawai’i (UH) Cancer Center and UH John A. Burns School of Medicine in Honolulu have made a discovery that could drastically improve outcomes of individuals at risk of developing lung cancer. Their findings are part of the paper, “A Panel of Circulating Exosomal sncRNAs Associated With Lung Cancer Risk up to 10 Years in Advance,” published in Advanced Science.
The research team identified a panel of 31 small non-coding RNAs (sncRNAs) found in circulating plasma exosomes associated with lung cancer. The blood biomarkers could help predict lung cancer risk up to 10 years before a medical diagnosis, when cancer is in early development but not yet clinically detected.
In their study, researchers analyzed pre-diagnostic plasma samples from the Multiethnic Cohort (MEC). They identified a 31-sncRNA blood signature that consisted of 15 microRNAs, eight PIWI-interacting RNAs, seven tRNA-derived fragments and one tRNA half.
They then used a random forest classifier to test the signature, achieving an AUC of 0.97 with 93% sensitivity, 100% specificity and 95% overall accuracy. The researchers reported the sncRNA-derived risk score proved strongly associated with ensuing lung cancer, even after adjusting for age, sex, ethnicity, smoking intensity and smoking duration. This suggests the signature collects predictive information beyond traditional demographic and smoking-related factors, they said.
“Our goal was not simply to distinguish patients with established lung cancer from cancer-free individuals but to identify molecular signals that may indicate high lung cancer risk years before clinical diagnosis,” said senior and corresponding author Youping Deng, PhD, in a UH press release. Dr. Deng is co-director of the UH Cancer Center’s Genomics and Bioinformatics Shared Resource.
The blood signature association was also detectable during the five-to-10-year period prior to clinical diagnosis, the team reported. They said this indicates the sncRNA panel reflects early biological changes involved with lung carcinogenesis before a tumor is clinically detectable.
“A central question in this study was whether a molecular signal of future lung cancer could already be present in blood many years before diagnosis,” said Zhuokun Feng, MD, first author and PhD candidate.
The UH research team said it is working to secure a patent for the biomarker panel and its potential clinical implementation.
