Small Disposable Microarray Diagnoses Early-Stage Lung Cancer

A simple new and inexpensive blood test is being developed to diagnose early stage lung cancer and many other diseases.

The small disposable microarray called the I-Chip resembles chips used by the electronic industry and contains biologic molecules rather than circuitry. Each chip can carry thousands of different molecules on it, but initially it is planned to create chips that test for just one disease at a time. A drop of blood is put on the chip, and if the relevant antibodies are present in the blood they will bind to the chip creating a signature that profiles the patient's state of health.

ImmunArray (Tel Aviv, Israel) is developing the I-Chip for early diagnosis of lung cancer. Dr. Eli Sahar, CEO of ImmunArray, said that, "[lung cancer] is the second most common cancer in terms of annual incidence, and has a five-year survival rate of just 15%. There are 1.25 million new cases of lung cancer diagnosed every year worldwide, and 175,000 in the United States alone. Lung cancer usually develops unnoticed and is diagnosed only after symptoms have already appeared. By the time a patient starts coughing up blood in [his/her] sputum it's too late. The cancer has progressed too far.”

The platform technology will be used to identify any number of autoimmune and inflammatory diseases, including juvenile diabetes, multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, cancer, and Crohn's disease. ImmunArray decided to focus first on lung cancer because of its prevalence, deadly nature, and because there is an easily identifiable population at risk.

In the vast majority of cases--some 85 %--lung cancer is a result of smoking. In the United States, there are 19 million current or past smokers over the age of 45, the age at which lung cancer incidence rises. These high-risk smokers form a well-defined target population for the I-Chip cancer test, which is particularly well suited for screening of large populations.

Until now, ImmunArray has carried out in-house proof of concept trials using specimens collected over the years from Israeli and U.S. labs including the cancer center, MD Anderson (Houston, TX, USA). Results, according to Dr. Sahar, have been excellent.

At present, patients who are at risk from lung cancer must undergo either an x-ray or a compute tomography (CT) scan. These are non-specific and relatively expensive tests. If a suspicious nodule is discovered, then the doctor will carry out a biopsy or surgery, and the final diagnosis will be based on that.