EQUAL Study Launches Lung Cancer Screening Trial for People at High Risk

Dana-Farber Cancer Institute investigators launch a first-of-its-kind study to use a novel blood test to identify people who have never used tobacco but are at a high risk of lung cancer and offer them complimentary lung cancer screening.

Excerpt from the Press Release:

Dana-Farber Cancer Institute researchers have launched a study of a novel, homegrown blood test in hopes of identifying people who are at an elevated risk of lung cancer – despite never having used tobacco – and screen them for the disease. The team, led by principal investigator and thoracic oncologist Narjust Florez, MD, associate director of Dana-Farber’s Cancer Care Equity Program, designed the study in response to rising rates of lung cancer in younger people and prevalence in individuals of Asian or Hispanic/Latinx descent who have never used tobacco. 

Lung cancer screening is currently limited to individuals over 50 with a history of tobacco use equivalent to smoking a pack of cigarettes every day for 20 years and doing so within the past 15 years. According to the American Lung Association, only about 23% of lung cancer cases are diagnosed at an early stage, when the five-year survival rate is high. Lung cancer is much more likely to be diagnosed at a late stage, when the cancer may have spread, and curative treatments become less effective.

“Our hope is that we will be able to determine if this blood test helps us diagnose patients early, since they are at a high risk for lung cancer but don’t qualify for traditional lung cancer screening,” says Florez. 

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