LungExpress Dx™ uses our proprietary 15-gene signature to improve upon staging for identifying those patients with early-stage non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) who, following surgical removal of their tumor, are at a higher and lower risk of mortality.

Early-stage NSCLC patients are treated primarily by surgical removal of their tumours.  Recent clinical trials have established that adjuvant chemotherapy, administered after tumour removal, significantly improves the survival of stage II patients, but does not significantly improve the survival of stage I patients.  As a result, the American Society of Clinical Oncology and National Comprehensive Cancer Network recommend adjuvant chemotherapy for stage II patients but not for stage I patients. 

However, 30% to 55% of stage I and II patients still die as a result of the disease, implying that patients diagnosed with the same stage of disease can have markedly different treatment responses and overall outcomes.  Currently, tumor stage (determined by the size and location of the tumour and lymph node involvement) remains the strongest predictor of survival but fails to account for this difference in patient outcomes.  LungExpress Dx™ is expected to help address this critical issue.

The original study presented at the 2008 Annual Meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (“A 15-gene expression signature prognostic for survival and predictive for adjuvant chemotherapy benefit in JBR.10 patients.” Tsao et al., (2008) J Clin Oncol 26: 2008; http://www.asco.org/ASCO/Abstracts+%26+Virtual+Meeting/Abstracts?&vmview=abst_detail_view&confID=55&abstractID=32591) of patient specimens from the National Cancer Institute of Canada Clinical Trials Group JBR.10 trial (cisplatin / vinorelbine) showed that those patients classified by LungExpress Dx as high risk benefitted, and those classified as lower risk did not benefit, and may have experienced a detrimental effect, from adjuvant chemotherapy, following resection of their tumour. 

To date, the prognostic utility of LungExpress Dx™ has been validated in approximately 675 patient samples.

LungExpress Dx™ is being developed in collaboration with a team of internationally acclaimed researchers and physicians at the Princess Margaret Hospital in Toronto.  The team is led by Dr. Ming-Sound Tsao, holder of the M. Qasim Choksi Chair in Lung Cancer Translational Research, and Dr. Frances A. Shepherd, holder of the Scott Taylor Chair in Lung Cancer Research and the Past-Chair of the National Cancer Institute of Canada Clinical Trials Group Lung Cancer Site.  Drs. Tsao and Shepherd are Professors at the University of Toronto and have in total authored more than 500 articles in peer reviewed journals.

Princess Margaret Hospital, a research hospital of the University of Toronto, has achieved an international reputation as a global leader in the fight against cancer and is considered one of the top comprehensive cancer treatment and research centres in the world. Located in Toronto, Princess Margaret Hospital, together with its research institute, the Ontario Cancer Institute, is a member of the University Health Network, which also includes the Toronto General Hospital and the Toronto Western Hospital.  Princess Margaret Hospital is the only facility in Canada devoted exclusively to cancer research, treatment and education.