Geoffrey Hamilton-Fairley, CEO of Oncimmune LON:ONC commented:“The ability to distinguish between malignant and benign lung nodules is a key challenge for physicians. This study, led by Pierre Massion, MD at Vanderbilt, adds further evidence that EarlyCDT®-Lung can play a positive role in helping clinicians interpret pulmonary nodules and, significantly, do so when nodules are still small, leading to earlier detection.
“Our intention is for Oncimmune representatives to make this study available to US pulmonologists so that an increasing number of them use the test to evaluate the risk of indeterminate nodules.”
Oncimmune Holdings plc (AIM: ONC.L), a leading early cancer detection company developing and commercialising its proprietary EarlyCDT® platform technology, has told DirectorsTalk today about the publication of new data in the Journal of Thoracic Oncology1 on the effectiveness of the EarlyCDT®-Lung autoantibody test in distinguishing between malignant and benign lung nodules.
The use of computed tomography scans (CT) to screen patients at risk for lung cancer is increasing and over 1.5 million individuals have lung nodules identified annually in the United States. As CT detects large numbers of benign nodules (96% false positive rate)2, a test which can help assess a nodule’s risk and thus assist physicians in identifying malignancy has great potential benefit.
The study showed that a positive EarlyCDT®-Lung test indicates that a nodule is between 2 to 3 times more likely to be a cancer. This is especially important for nodules that are too small for other methods of investigation to be effective, such as PET, or biopsy which is too invasive and expensive given the large number of nodules identified. For nodules below 15mm in diameter, this test should be of significant value as it will help identify a much smaller group of higher risk nodules where faster intervention may be warranted.
Dr James Jett, Chief Medical Officer of Oncimmune said: “The physician’s goal in evaluating pulmonary nodules is to determine which are likely to be cancer so that they can be removed early while they are in a curative stage. Likewise, physicians want to avoid sending patients to surgery to remove benign nodules (scar tissue). This study demonstrates that a positive Early CDT-Lung blood test will be of major assistance to doctors in separating lung nodules that are cancer from those that are just scar tissue.“
