Abstract
BackgroundLung cancer is the second most common cancer and the leading cause of cancer death for both men and women. Although low-dose CT (LDCT) is recommended for lung cancer screening in high-risk populations and may decrease lung cancer mortality, there is a need to improve the accuracy of lung cancer screening to decrease over-diagnosis and morbidity. Blood and serum-based biomarkers, including EarlyCDT-lung and microRNA based biomarkers, are promising adjuncts to LDCT in lung cancer screening.We evaluated the diagnostic performance of EarlyCDT-lung, micro-RNA signature classifier (MSC), and miR-test, and their impact on lung cancer-related mortality and all-cause mortality.MethodsReferences were identified using searches of PubMed, EMBASE, and Ovid Medline® from January 2000 to November 2015. Phase three or greater studies in the English language evaluating the diagnostic performance of EarlyCDT-lung, MSC, and miR-test were selected for inclusion.ResultsThree phase 3 studies were identified, one evaluating EarlyCDT-lung, one evaluating miR-Test, and one evaluating MSC respectively. No phase 4 or 5 studies were identified. All three biomarker assays show promise for the detection of lung cancer. MSC shows promise when used in conjunction with LDCT for lung cancer detection, achieving a positive likelihood ratio of 18.6 if both LDCT and MSC are positive, and a negative likelihood ratio of 0.03 if both LDCT and MSC are negative. However, there is a paucity of high-quality studies that can guide clinical implementation.ConclusionsThere is currently no high quality evidence to support or guide the implementation of these biomarkers in clinical practice. Reports of further research at stages four and five for these, and other promising methods, is required.
Highlights
Lung cancer is the second most common cancer and the leading cause of cancer death for both men and women
Summary of literature search Our search for studies examining the diagnostic and outcome performance of EarlyCDT-lung, miR-test, and micro-RNA signature classifier (MSC) with and without low-dose CT (LDCT) located 99 unique citations (Fig. 1)
On-topic non-review studies were identified for abstract screening. 12 of the remaining 15 studies were excluded for being Phase 1 or 2 trials and did not meet the inclusion criterion of Phase 3 and above. 56 studies were excluded because the paper described interventions or outcome which used biomarkers and 12 were excluded because the study design did not enable the calculation of test performance characteristics
Summary
Lung cancer is the second most common cancer and the leading cause of cancer death for both men and women [1,2,3]. In 2015, an estimated 26,600 Canadians were diagnosed with, and 20,900 died from, lung cancer [2]. In 2014, 163,422 patients from the UK died from lung cancer, with lung cancer projected to continue as the leading cause of cancer-related death until 2035 [3]. The five year survival rate for patients diagnosed with late stage lung cancer and metastatic lung cancer are 16.8% and < 5% respectively [1].
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