Early Detection of Lung Cancer: Metabolic Biomarkers for High Risk Screening (MEDLUNG)

OBJECTIVES:

• To test and make a preliminary assessment of the sensitivity and specificity of Fourier transform infrared technology (FTIR) for use in the early detection of lung cancer in sputum samples from patients who have or participants at high risk for developing lung cancer and from non-high-risk smoking and non-smoking volunteers.
• To permit identification of specific metabolic biomarkers within FTIR spectra that can distinguish between lung cancer, high-risk, and non-high-risk cases.

OUTLINE: This is a multicenter study.

Sputum samples and endobronchial biopsy tissue specimens are collected prior to routine bronchoscopy as part of a standard clinical assessment for the early detection of lung cancer. Sputum samples are examined for levels of bronchial and non-bronchial cells using established cytological and immunohistochemical procedures. Samples are also examined for metabolic biomarkers using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) to generate complete metabolic fingerprints (i.e., spectra) that can distinguish metabolic differences between cancer, non-cancer, and early disease (i.e., dysplasia or metaplasia). These molecular biomarkers, which are detected within FTIR spectra, may be further analyzed in matched endobronchial biopsy tissue samples for histological confirmation. Additional clinico-pathological data is collected for each participant to allow development of predictive statistical models from the data.

All study participants are followed annually.