A simple blood test capable of identifying lung cancer at an early stage is to be trialled by the NHS on thousands of smokers.
It his hoped the new test, developed in Britain and already piloted in the US, will drastically cut death rates, reduce medical bills and lead to an overhaul in the way cancer is diagnosed and treated.
Sir Harry Burns, Scotland's chief medical officer, said the trial would involve 10,000 patients, mainly smokers, identified as having a higher risk of developing the disease. If successful, the £200-per-person procedure could be rolled out across the rest of the country.
"The earlier a cancer is diagnosed the greater the chance it can be treated successfully, and currently 85% of patients with lung cancer remain undiagnosed until the disease has reached an advanced stage," Burns said. He said the detection programme aimed to increase early diagnosis by 25%.
Known as EarlyCDT-Lung, the test tracks increases in blood antibody levels that could signal the onset of cancer. Patients with raised levels will be referred for a CT scan – the x-ray-style imaging currently used to detect the disease.
Burns said the test would lead to greatly increased cancer survival rates. "By testing those at greatest risk of developing lung cancer and diagnosing it at its earliest possible stage, we stand a better chance of being able to treat it successfully," he said.
Lung cancer claims about 35,000 lives a year in Britain and diagnosis is rarely made early enough to ensure effective treatment. About 93% of patients die within five years of the onset of symptoms.
Test developer John Robertson, professor of surgery at the University of Nottingham, said early trials in the US had improved the prognosis for a substantial number of patients. He said new breakthroughs were expected that would eventually identify all forms of the disease.
"We are working hard on bringing the next test for the early detection of breast cancer to the market within a year. We are also working on a number of similar tests for prostate, colon and ovarian cancer. A blood test to aid detection of all tumour cancers is still the overriding objective of our work."
It is hoped that increasing survival rates will create major savings for the health service.
Once the Scottish trials are complete, it is understood the NHS will examine whether it is cost-effective for use in mass screening. If the results are positive, the UK national screening committee, which advises the government and the NHS, will decide how checks can be rolled out to millions of smokers across the country.
