Lung Cancer
Leading cause of all cancer related deaths
Lung Cancer?
Lung cancer is a type of cancer in bronchus and lungs,
and a leading cause of all cancer related deaths worldwide affecting millions of patients annually.
Lung cancer at an early stage is difficult to notice as it rarely shows obvious symptoms.
They tend to develop as the lung cancer becomes more advanced,
and the prognosis is very bad. Earlier detection saves lives.
Lung cancer is a disease with the mortality and incidence rate rising each year regardless of sex.
Mortality rate no 1, lung cancer
Rising number of lung cancer patients
Rate of early diagnosis of lung cancer is only 21%,
but the relative survival rate reaches 64%.
In 2016, 240 thousand people have been diagnosed with lung cancer,
180 thousand people have died in S. Korea.
5 year-survival rate of lung cancer is 25.1%. With early diagnosis,
5 year-survival rate goes up to approximately 60 %.
[according to sources from 2011~2015 of national cancer information center]
Lung cancer has poor prognosis and difficult to treat. However,
with early diagnosis, treatment is possible,
which improves survival rate.
Unmet Demand for Existing Tests
New test method with high accuracy, better convenience, and lower cost to access early diagnosis is needed.
Single biomarker technology does not have performance good enough,
as the cause of lung cancer is complicated.
Diagnostic imagining such as X-ray and CT has high false-positive rate.
Limitations of current lung cancer test
| Test method |
Advantages |
Disadvantages |
| Chest CT scan |
Most common non-invasive method |
Exposure to radiation, high false positive rate, contrast agent as allergen |
| Sputum cytology |
The least invasive method |
High false positive rate, difficulty in sampling sputum |
| Pleural fluid analysis |
Accurate than radioactive test |
High risk of invasive test |
| Bronchoscopy |
Effective test on specific cancer tissue |
High risk of invasive test, possible damage on blood vessel |
| Biopsy |
Definitive test |
High risk of invasive test, needs long test time |
| Biomarker analysis |
Easy and quick test |
Clinical validation needed |
The Korean guideline for lung cancer screening
[ source: Ministry of Health and Welfare ]
According to a research result of National Lung Cancer Screening Trial (NLST),
a United States-based clinical trial, the mortality by lung cancer decreased by 20 % with low-dose computed tomography (LDCT).
Lung cancer diagnosis in 2019: every 2 years LDCT recommended to the high-risk patients
between 55 to 74 of age with at least 30 pack-year history of smoking.
LDCT used in the national cancer screening has high false-positive rate
and side effect of unnecessary additional test,
radiation exposure, and overdiagnosis.
AptoDetectTM-Lung test, compared to existing diagnostic tests,
provides test convenience as non-invasive blood test with high performance.
