sputum-based molecular biomarkers for the early detection of lung cancer limitations and promisesputum-based分子生物标志物对肺癌的早期检测的局限性和承诺.pdf

Cancers 2011, 3, 2975-2989; doi:10.3390/cancers3032975 OPEN ACCESS   cancers ISSN 2072-6694 /journal/cancers Review Sputum-Based Molecular Biomarkers for the Early Detection of Lung Cancer: Limitations and Promise Connie E. Kim 1, Kam-Meng Tchou-Wong 1,2 and William N. Rom 1,2,* 1 Department of Medicine, Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine. 462 First Avenue, NBV 7N24, New York, NY 10016, USA; E-Mails: connie.kim@ (C.E.K.); kam-meng.tchou-wong@ (K.-M.T.-W.) 2 Department of Environmental Medicine, New York University School of Medicine, 57 Old Forge Road, Tuxedo, NY 10987, USA * Author to whom correspondence should be addressed; E-Mail: william.rom@; Tel.: 212-263-6479; Fax: 212-263-8442. Received: 3 June 2011; in revised form: 11 July 2011 / Accepted: 12 July 2011 / Published: 19 July 2011 Abstract: Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer deaths, with an overall survival of 15% at five years. Biomarkers that can sensitively and specifically detect lung cancer at early stage are crucial for improving this poor survival rate. Sputum has been the target for the discovery of non-invasive biomarkers for lung cancer because it contains airway epithelial cells, and molecular alterations identified in sputum are most likely to reflect tumor-associated changes or field cancerization caused by smoking in the lung. Sputum- based molecular biomark