EQUAL Study Launches Lung Cancer Screening Trial for People at High Risk
Narjust Florez, Associate Director of the Cancer Care Equity Program and a Thoracic Medical Oncologist at the Dana-Farber Brigham Cancer Center, shared a post by Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, adding:
“Our study aims to early intercept EGFR positive lung cancer in patients that do not have any other lung cancer screening options as non-tobacco user. Recruiting in all New England! EQUAL study.”
Quoting Dana-Farber Cancer Institute‘s post:
“A team of researchers, led by principal investigator and thoracic oncologist Narjust Florez associate director of our Cancer Care Equity Program, launch a first-of-its-kind study to use a novel blood test to identify people who have never used tobacco but are at a high risk of lung cancer and offer them complimentary lung cancer screening.
Due to limiting screening regulations, lung cancer is currently much more likely to be diagnosed at a late stage, when the cancer may have spread, and curative treatments become less effective. According to the American Lung Association, only about 23% of lung cancer cases are diagnosed at an early stage, when the five-year survival rate is high.
The trial, called EQUAL (EGFR ctDNA Quantitative Assessment for Lung Cancer screening in Asian and Latinx populations), focuses on individuals of Asian and Hispanic/Latinx descent, populations where epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) gene mutations can be prevalent. Since EGFR type mutations are associated with lung cancer, having this mutation poses an increased risk of developing the disease. Cancer cases are also rising more rapidly in people of Asian or Hispanic/Latinx descent.
“Our hope is that we will be able to determine if this blood test helps us diagnose patients early, since they are at a high risk for lung cancer but don’t qualify for traditional lung cancer screening,” says Florez.
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