Why newly-diagnosed lung cancer patients should get this test done before starting treatment

A evaluation conducted in Virginia located that nearly a quarter of all newly-diagnosed patients with advanced lung cancer were not given a test that could improve their chances for long-term survival and reduce the side effects associated with healing More stories What cancer patients families should know about clinical trials in the DC area Close doesn t count Biomarker testing crucial for modern lung cancer remedy On year cancerversary WTOP s Neal Augenstein reflects on living with lung cancer The research squad led by Ram Subramanian a thoracic physiological oncologist at the Inova Schar Cancer Institute identified that nearly one-fourth of U S patients whose initial biopsy revealed cancer did not receive additional biomarker testing to determine whether the sufferer s cancer contained the epidermal expansion factor receptor mutation which is abbreviated as EGFR The importance of testing is if they have that mutation then the recovery is very different and the recipient outcomes are also much better Subramanian stated WTOP s Neal Augenstein A case with an EGFR mutation can be treated with a one-pill-a-day targeted therapy without needing chemotherapy We all know that chemotherapy is not easy to undergo Subramanian noted You can give only the targeted therapy so you don t have to come in every three weeks for IV infusion various of them are able to function at a near-normal fashion like continue their work and go about their daily routine as they would want to I was diagnosed with stage EGFR-positive lung cancer in November by doctors at Inova Schar After a sparse months of targeted therapy and a lobectomy I ve been cancer-free since May while continuing my one-pill-a-day regimen According to the American Lung Association EGFR-positive lung cancers represent about - of lung cancers in the U S preponderance often appearing in the adenocarcinoma subtype of non-small cell lung cancer Patients with lung cancers with EGFR mutations tend to have a minimal to no smoking history but EGFR mutations can appear in patients with other types of lung cancer e g squamous and smoking histories Why it s key to test before starting recovery One of the challenges facing patients and oncologists is the latest biomarker testing called next-generation sequencing or NGS typically can take a insufficient weeks to complete Two or three weeks is a lot of time because a sufferer s features can change in that time and just the anxiety of waiting is a lot for the victim Subramanian stated In a WTOP interview Stephen Liu director of Thoracic Oncology and Developmental Therapeutics at Georgetown University stated the wait can be taxing on a victim It s very common for there to be this urgency to begin therapy which is perfectly understandable Liu disclosed You get the sense that this cancer has selected momentum and you want to start cure the day before today Subramanian announced it s central to gather all the information about a person s particular cancer before beginning to treat it If we don t wait for that and we start a different medication like immunotherapy or immunotherapy plus chemotherapy we know that chosen of the patients do worse Subramanian mentioned So it s significant that we get the testing done and then start medicine because not only do they do better a few of the side effects and worse outcomes that we could have with a different cure can also be avoided The length of time the cancer is controlled or even our chance of achieving a cure is significantly improved when they re on the right healing added Subramanian He s hopeful this investigation will continue to raise awareness of the importance of testing for mutations early In this scrutiny we were seeing about - of these patients having tests done he revealed Particular of the newer content is indicating that testing is coming as high as Source