Molecular Detection of Early Lung Cancer

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Abstract
Lung cancer is the most common cause of cancer death in the United States, and most cases follow long-term use of tobacco products ( 1 , 2 ). The first objective in lung cancer control is to prevent persons from starting to smoke and to help those who smoke to quit. Nevertheless, in the United States today, there are 48 million smokers, most of whom find it difficult to quit, with new smokers rapidly replacing the quitters ( 3 ) and smokers who die from their disease. In addition, about 40% of all new lung cancers are occurring in former smokers, who remain at high risk for developing lung cancer for many years after they stop smoking ( 4 ). Under current standard methods of diagnosis and treatment, less than 15% of patients with lung cancer will survive their disease ( 2 ). Most patients who achieve long-term survival are those with non-small-cell lung cancers (NSCLC), who have surgical resection of early stage invasive tumors without metastases (stage I) or tumors with metastases limited to the adjacent ipsilateral lymph nodes (stage II). Patients with preinvasive and microinvasive cancers that are found by cytologic examination of sputum have high survival rates (>90%) after surgical removal or localized therapy ( 2 ), but they constitute less than 1% of newly diagnosed cases ( 5 ).

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