Comorbidities and clinical outcomes of a lung cancer screening trial participants with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in three-year follow-up

Background To improve the effectiveness of lung cancer screening using low-dose computed tomography (LDCT), the presence of smoking-related comorbidities that may significantly affect mortality in this group should be taken into account. Material and methods A questionnaire survey and spirometry tests were conducted in a group of 730 respondents as part of a lung cancer screening study between 2016 and 2018. People diagnosed with COPD underwent a three-year follow-up to assess the incidence of medical events. Results Our study confirmed that cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) were the most common comorbidities in patients who were diagnosed with COPD and participated in LDCT lung cancer screening. Among the CVDs, the most common were arterial hypertension (45.8%) and coronary artery disease (12.5%). Tobacco-related diseases (e.g. CVD, lung cancer, and exacerbations of COPD) were the leading causes of emergency department visits and hospitalizations. The number of visits due to COPD in specialized clinics more than doubled in the observed period. Conclusions Properly planned screening tests allow not only for the detection of the disease for which they were designed but also for the assessment of comorbidities. In patients undergoing lung cancer screening, it is justified to extend the diagnostics to include spirometry

Panel of serum metabolites discriminates cancer patients and healthy participants of lung cancer screening - a pilot study

Introduction. Blood biomarkers may support early diagnosis of lung cancer by enabling pre-selection of candidates for computed tomography screening or discrimination between benign and malignant screening-detected nodules. We aimed to identify features of serum metabolome distinguishing individuals with early-detected lung cancer from healthy participants of the lung cancer screening program. Methods. Blood samples were collected in the course of a low-dose computed tomography screening program performed in the Gdansk district (Northern Poland). The analysis included 31 patients with screening-detected lung cancer and the pair-matched group of 92 healthy controls. The gas chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry (GC/MS) approach was used to identify and quantify small metabolites present in serum. Results. There were several metabolites detected in the sera whose abundances discriminated patients with lung cancer from controls. Majority of the differentiating components were downregulated in cancer samples, including amino acids, carboxylic acids and tocopherols, whereas benzaldehyde was the only compound significantly upregulated. A classifier including nine serum metabolites allowed separation of cancer and control samples with 100% sensitivity and 95% specificity. Conclusions. Signature of serum metabolites discriminating between cancer patients and healthy participants of the early lung cancer screening program was identified using a GC/MS metabolomics approach. This signature, though not validated in an independent dataset, deserves further investigation in a larger cohort study

Identification of serum proteome components associated with progression of non-small cell lung cancer

The aim of the present study was to perform comparative analysis of serum from patients with different stages of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) using the three complementary proteomic approaches to identify proteome components associated with the progression of cancer. Serum samples were collected before any treatment from 200 patients with NSCLC, including 103 early stage, 64 locally advanced and 33 metastatic cancer samples, and from 200 donors without malignancy. The low-molecular-weight fraction of serum proteome was MALDI-profiled in all samples. Serum proteins were characterized using 2D-PAGE and LC-MS/MS approaches in a representative group of 30 donors. Several significant differences were detected between serum samples collected from patients with early stage cancer and patients with locally advanced cancer, as well as between patients with metastatic cancer and patients with local disease. Of note, serum components discriminating samples from early stage cancer and healthy persons were also detected. In general, about 70 differentiating serum proteins were identified, including inflammatory and acute phase proteins already reported to be associated with the progression of lung cancer (serum amyloid A or haptoglobin). Several differentiating proteins, including apolipoprotein H or apolipoprotein A1, were not previously associated with NSCLC. No significant differences in patterns of serum proteome components were detected between patients with adenocarcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma. In conclusion, we identified the biomarker candidates with potential importance for molecular proteomic staging of NSCLC. Additionally, several serum proteome components revealed their potential applicability in early detection of the lung cancer