NEW YORK – City of Hope and Delfi Diagnostics said Tuesday that they are collaborating on a clinical study aimed at improving lung cancer screening rates in underserved communities in Los Angeles County.
During the study, which is funded by a grant from the American Cancer Society, investigators led by Dan Raz, codirector of City of Hope's lung cancer and thoracic oncology program, will offer Delfi's FirstLook Lung test, a blood-based lung cancer screening assay, free of charge to eligible trial participants.
Study locations include City of Hope Antelope Valley, ParkTree Community Health Center, and, in the future, a City of Hope mobile screening unit.
Raz called the study "desperately needed" in the targeted communities. "We hope that by offering a high-sensitivity lung cancer blood test, we can catch more lung cancer early. If lung cancer is caught early, there is a higher chance of it being treated effectively," he said in a statement.
Delfi's FirstLook Lung test analyzes patterns of DNA fragments in the blood that are unique to lung cancer. In earlier validation, the test demonstrated 80 percent sensitivity in a screening population, including for the earliest stages of the disease.
According to Christina Annunziata, senior VP of extramural discovery science at the American Cancer Society, there are currently millions of individuals in the US who are eligible for lung cancer screening according to ACS guidelines but don't follow through with recommended CT scans.
"We are excited to have funded the early work in this project, which will test this alternative screening method that may be more accessible and therefore has the potential to reach more people," she said in a statement.