Cheap, fast test for type of lung cancer

LUGANO, Switzerland, Feb. 25 (UPI) -- An inexpensive and rapid test can effectively identify a sub-group of lung cancer for patients who have never smoked, U.S. researchers say.

Dr. Ping Yang of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., and colleagues say about 8 percent to 12 percent of patients with lung adenocarcinoma -- a cancer -- who have never smoked cigarettes carry tumors that express a protein product called anaplastic lymphoma kinase.

"This subset of patients are at more than double the risk of experiencing disease progression or recurrence within five years of initial diagnosis compared to never-smokers whose lung adenocarcinoma tumors are anaplastic lymphoma kinase-negative," Yang says in a statement.

The anaplastic lymphoma kinase positive tumors were significantly more aggressive as measured by tumor grade of differentiation and stage, and were diagnosed in younger patients, Yang says.

The findings, presented at the European Multidisciplinary Conference in Thoracic Oncology in Lugano, Switzerland, show immunohistochemistry -- the process of detecting antigens or proteins in cells -- may be an efficient screen to identify cases of lung cancer.