Can Tumour Antigens Act as Biomarkers for the Early Detection of Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer?

Abstract

Lung cancer (LC) is one of the leading causes of cancer-related deaths. Pulmonary nodules are one of the risk factors, and their discovery rate has been increasing due to enhanced performance of chest CT scans, but more than 90% are non-malignant, causing unnecessary stress to patients and costs to healthcare providers. Early diagnosis of LC is associated with a 5-year survival rate of up to 75% following surgical resection, but LC is often diagnosed late due to a lack of symptoms and poor 5-year survival rates as low as 10%. The cost of LC diagnosis is high, with 40% of it associated with benign lesions, which are difficult to differentiate from malignant lesions. Tumour-associated antigens (TAAs) may provide one way in which LC could be diagnosed early using minimally-invasive techniques, under their association with immune responses and specificity for disease. Here we discuss the potential of cancer-testis antigens (CTAs) to act as non-invasive biomarkers for the early detection of non-small cell lung cancer.