Early Detection is Crucial in the Fight to Cure Lung Cancer

Transcript:

Hello, my name is David Anderson, CFO at LungLife. The ability to detect lung cancer early is crucial in being able to cure this pernicious cancer. Currently, early detection is possible if either you're eligible under a lung cancer screening program using a low dose CT scan as described by the US Preventative Services Task Force recommendations, or if after receiving a CT scan for another purpose, an indeterminate nodule is found on your lung.

The eligibility criteria for the screening program were recently broadened to increase eligibility by reducing the age limit to 50 and smoking pack years to 20. But participation rates are low. Only up to around 6% of those eligible participate. And whilst the relaxation of the eligibility criteria is to be welcomed, this continues to perpetuate the myth that only smokers suffer from lung cancer.

When an indeterminate nodule is found incidentally by CT scan, the current standard of care is either biopsy or a further scan in the future. It is well documented the significant anxiety of being told to return some months later to see if that nodule has grown. Helping to address the diagnostic uncertainty of an indeterminate lung nodule would help clinicians make timely decisions for people at risk for lung cancer and would help facilitate navigation through, and adoption of, lung cancer screening programs.

In 2021, we completed a pilot study which gave us a high degree of confidence that our LungLB® blood test will help increase certainty when evaluating indeterminate lung nodules that may be cancer. We have recently embarked on our pivotal validation study and we hope those findings will be replicated.

Currently, some 80% of cancer of the lung is detected late. Our hope is our test, based on a simple blood draw, will encourage greater participation in screening programs and help clinicians better interpret cases of indeterminate nodules such that in years to come, at least 80% of cancer of the lung is detected early.