Risk Factors
EarlyCDT®-Lung is designed to aid early detection, specifically for asymptomatic individuals deemed by a physician at increased risk of developing lung cancer. While everyone carries some risk of developing lung cancer, you could be at increased risk if you could answer “yes” to one or more of the following questions.
Lung Cancer risk relating questions:
- Do you now or have you ever smoked tobacco, including cigarettes, cigars, and/or marijuana for 10 or more years?
- Are you now or have ever been subjected to secondhand smoke for extended periods of time?
- Do you have close relatives who have had lung cancer?
- Have you worked or lived in an environment where you were subjected to prolonged exposure to radon, asbestos, coal products, and/or radioactive substances?
- Have you worked or lived in an environment where you were subjected to prolonged exposure to chemicals such as arsenic, vinyl chloride, and/or other carcinogens?
- Have you been diagnosed with tuberculosis, silicosis, and/or berylliosis with or without scarring on the lung?
This is not meant to be a comprehensive questionnaire. Please talk to your physician about your risk of developing lung cancer.
The process recommended by your health-care provider is designed to detect a lung tumour as early as possible. It is important to remember that EarlyCDT®-Lung has been developed to help detect the presence of autoantibodies to tumour antigens which have been reported to be detectable up to five years before a tumor has become detectable.1 Early detection improves the potential for a good outcome. If you are at increased risk, EarlyCDT®-Lung could be invaluable in early detection. It is important to realise that EarlyCDT®-Lung cannot be guaranteed to detect all cases of lung cancer. Early detection has been shown to improve mortality in some types of cancer (e.g. breast, colon, cervical). In lung cancer early detection has been proven to reduce mortality - a very recent publication in The New England Journal of Medicine concludes that CT screening reduces lung cancer mortality by 20%.
US Patent No 7,402,403
Sources:
1Zhong L, Coe SP, Stromberg AJ, et al. Profiling tumor-associated antibodies for early detection of non-small cell lung cancer. J Thor Oncol 2006; 1:513-519