Celera公司產品開發部的副主任Charlie Birse及其同事們正在研究利用其具自主的一組生物標志物行血清測試以檢測肺癌的可靠性。其目的是在胸部CT掃描發現可疑結果的患者中運用該測試。一組生物標志物似可在從未吸煙人群的血液樣本中查出肺癌。盡管吸煙和肺癌的早已得到確認，但約有1/4的肺癌人群仍為從未吸煙者。Birse稱，“一些人行并非專為肺癌而行CT掃描。他們在做胸部CT掃描以預防心臟疾病或其他情況下偶然發現肺結節，而這些結節可能是良性也可能不是。這一組生物標志物則能進一步評估這些影像學檢查，在一定程度上進行診斷。”

Birse和他的同事對600例樣本進行檢測。該樣本隨機分為訓練集和測試集。前者包括吸煙的非小細胞肺癌（NSCLC）患者和配對的對照；后者包括其他的NSCLC病例和配對的對照。研究者成功構建出這些生物標志物后，在80例從未吸煙者中進行了研究。其中40例包含肺癌中各種分期和病理類型的患者，另外40例為經過年齡和性別配對后的對照。

研究者發現檢測肺癌的敏感度和特異度均為83%，并檢出了所有分期和病理類型的肺癌。Birse稱，“盡管前景誘人，仍需要在更大樣本的研究中以證實這些結果”。

原文

Serum Test Could Identify Lung Cancer in People Who Never Smoked

ORLANDO, Fla. — A panel of biomarkers appears to be able to identify the presence of lung cancer in the blood samples of people who have never smoked, according to data presented at the AACR 102nd Annual Meeting 2011, held here April 2-6.
While lung cancer has long been linked to smoking, approximay one-fourth of patients with lung cancer have never smoked. Researchers are working on ways to identify the presence of lung cancer in these patients.
Charlie Birse, Ph.D., associate director of product development at Celera Corporation, and colleagues are investigating the potential for a serum test that would examine the reliability of a proprietary panel of biomarkers for lung cancer. The goal is to administer this test in patients with suspect chest scans using computed axial tomography (CT) technology.
“In addition to intentional CT scans for lung cancer, many people undergo chest scans for heart disease prevention or other conditions and incidental nodules appear in the lungs that may or may not be benign,” said Birse. “This panel of biomarkers would allow these imaging tests to be further evaluated and provide a degree of certainty in diagnosis.”
Birse and colleagues examined more than 600 specimens. Samples were randomly divided into a training set comprised of patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) who were smokers and matched controls followed by a testing set of additional NSCLC cases and matched controls. Once the researchers established the biomarkers, they conducted additional studies in 80 people who have never smoked, 40 of whom had varied stages of cancer and histological cell types and 40 control subjects matched by age and gender.
Researchers found strong performance with a sensitivity and a specificity of 83 percent in identifying lung cancer. All stages of lung cancer and histological cell types were distinguished.
“While promising, these findings still need to be confirmed in larger sets,” Birse said.