Earlier diagnosis of lung cancer in a randomised trial of an autoantibody blood test followed by imaging

Early Diagnosis of Lung Cancer Scotland (ECLS) Team, Frank M. Sullivan*, Frances S. Mair, William Anderson, Pauline Armory, Andrew Briggs, Cindy Chew, Alistair Dorward, John Haughney, Fiona Hogarth, Denise Kendrick, Roberta Littleford, Alex McConnachie, Colin McCowan, Nicola McMeekin, Manish Patel, Petra Rauchhaus, Lewis Ritchie, Chris Robertson, John RobertsonJose Robles-Zurita, Joseph Sarvesvaran, Herbert Sewell, Michael Sproule, Thomas Taylor, Agnes Tello, Shaun Treweek, Kavita Vedhara, Stuart Schembri

*Corresponding author for this work

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Abstract

The EarlyCDT-Lung test is a high-specificity blood-based autoantibody biomarker that could contribute to predicting lung cancer risk. We report on the results of a phase IV biomarker evaluation of whether using the EarlyCDT-Lung test and any subsequent computed tomography (CT) scanning to identify those at high risk of lung cancer reduces the incidence of patients with stage III/IV/unspecified lung cancer at diagnosis compared with the standard clinical practice at the time the study began. The Early Diagnosis of Lung Cancer Scotland (ECLS) trial was a randomised controlled trial of 12208 participants at risk of developing lung cancer in Scotland in the UK. The intervention arm received the EarlyCDT-Lung test and, if test-positive, low-dose CT scanning 6-monthly for up to 2 years. EarlyCDT-Lung test-negative and control arm participants received standard clinical care. Outcomes were assessed at 2 years post-randomisation using validated data on cancer occurrence, cancer staging, mortality and comorbidities. At 2 years, 127 lung cancers were detected in the study population (1.0%). In the intervention arm, 33 out of 56 (58.9%) lung cancers were diagnosed at stage III/IV compared with 52 out of 71 (73.2%) in the control arm. The hazard ratio for stage III/IV presentation was 0.64 (95% CI 0.41-0.99). There were nonsignificant differences in lung cancer and all-cause mortality after 2 years. ECLS compared EarlyCDT-Lung plus CT screening to standard clinical care (symptomatic presentation) and was not designed to assess the incremental contribution of the EarlyCDT-Lung test. The observation of a stage shift towards earlier-stage lung cancer diagnosis merits further investigations to evaluate whether the EarlyCDT-Lung test adds anything to the emerging standard of low-dose CT.

Original languageEnglish
Article number00670
Number of pages11
JournalEuropean Respiratory Journal
Volume57
Issue number1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 14 Jan 2021

Funding

Conflict of interest: F.M. Sullivan reports grants from Oncimmune and the Scottish Government Health and Social Care Directorate of the Chief Scientist Office, during the conduct of the study. F.S. Mair reports grants from Oncimmune and the Scottish Government Health and Social Care Directorate of the Chief Scientist Office, during the conduct of the study. W. Anderson has nothing to disclose. P. Armory reports grants from Oncimmune and the Scottish Government Health and Social Care Directorate of the Chief Scientist Office, during the conduct of the study. A. Briggs reports grants from the Scottish Government Health and Social Care Directorate of the Chief Scientist Office and Oncimmune, during the conduct of the study. C. Chew has nothing to disclose. A. Dorward has nothing to disclose. J. Haughney has nothing to disclose. F. Hogarth reports grants from the Scottish Government Health and Social Care Directorate of the Chief Scientist Office and from Oncimmune, during the conduct of the study. D. Kendrick has nothing to disclose. R. Littleford reports grants from the Scottish Government Health and Social Care Directorate of the Chief Scientist Office and Oncimmune, during the conduct of the study. A. McConnachie reports grants from Oncimmune and the Scottish Government Health and Social Care Directorate of the Chief Scientist Office, during the conduct of the study. C. McCowan has nothing to disclose. N. McMeekin reports grants from Oncimmune and the Scottish Government Health and Social Care Directorate of the Chief Scientist Office, during the conduct of the study. M. Patel has nothing to disclose. P. Rauchhaus reports grants from Oncimmune and the Scottish Government Health and Social Care Directorate of the Chief Scientist Office, during the conduct of the study. L. Ritchie has nothing to disclose. C. Robertson reports personal fees and other funding from Oncimmune, outside the study. J. Robertson reports other funding from Oncimmune, during the conduct of the study; and other funding from Oncimmune, outside the study. J. Robertson was a founder of Oncimmune, a company spun out from the University of Nottingham based on his academic research. Between 2003 and 2013 he was Chief Scientific Officer of Oncimmune and a Director of the company. During this time, he was responsible for the original drafting of the ECLS protocol. Since 2013 he has had no involvement in the science or management of the company. He has been and remains a shareholder in the company. J. Robles-Zurita reports grants from the Scottish Government Health and Social Care Directorate of the Chief Scientist Office and Oncimmune, during the conduct of the study. J. Sarvesvaran has nothing to disclose. H. Sewell reports other funding from Oncimmune, outside the submitted work; and was an external member of the Oncimmune Scientific Advisory Board from 2006 to 2013. M. Sproule has nothing to disclose. T. Taylor reports grants, nonfinancial support and other funding from Oncimmune, grants and personal fees from the Chief Scientist Office for Scotland, and grants and nonfinancial support from the Scottish Government, outside the submitted work. A. Tello reports grants from Oncimmune, during the conduct of the study. S. Treweek reports grants from Oncimmune and the Scottish Government Health and Social Care Directorate of the Chief Scientist Office, during the conduct of the study. K. Vedhara has nothing to disclose. S. Schembri reports grants from Oncimmune and the Scottish Government Health and Social Care Directorate of the Chief Scientist Office, during the conduct of the study; and nonfinancial support from GlaxoSmithKline and AstraZeneca, outside the submitted work.

Keywords

  • early diagnosis
  • CDT-lung test
  • computed tomography (CT)
  • Early Diagnosis of Lung Cancer Scotland (ECLS)
  • randomised controlled trial
  • lung cancer

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