According to a report recently published in the New England Journal of Medicine, researchers at Taiwan University have developed a five-gene test that may help show which early-stage lung cancer patients most need chemotherapy. Chemotherapy can be greatly beneficial in slowing or halting the growth of lung cancer in some patients, but have little or no effect in others. Currently, no test exists to help determine which patients might most benefit from chemotherapy treatments.
The genetic test, which is still experimental, needs to be validated in larger groups of patients, and widespread use is likely a few years in the future. Still, researchers are encouraged by the early promise shown by the test, and the fact that its simplicity would make it relatively easy to use in everyday hospital settings.
