A study to develop a test to diagnose a second cancer after treatment for lung cancer (SPORT)

Cancer type:

Lung cancer

Non small cell lung cancer

Status:

Open

Phase:

Other

This study is looking at developing a new blood test. This test is to diagnose another cancer after having had treatment for non small cell lung cancer.

It is open to people who had treatment at least 2 years ago with the aim to cure their primary lung cancer Open a glossary item .

Cancer Research UK supports this study.

More about this trial

Doctors aim to cure non small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) with either:

surgery
radiotherapy or
chemotherapy with radiotherapy (chemoradiotherapy)

These treatments have almost doubled the long term survival of people with NSCLC. To increase survival doctors need new ways of detecting NSCLC. Previous studies have taken samples of blood from people after their diagnosis.

We know that people who had NSCLC have a greater chance of developing another primary cancer Open a glossary item . This can happen in the 10 years after their first cancer diagnosis.

In this study the researchers will take blood samples. They want to develop a test. The test looks for bits of cancer DNA that might be in the blood (circulating tumour DNA Open a glossary item ).

They also look at other factors such as proteins in the blood and markers on blood cell surfaces that might be able to tell in advance who is at a high risk of developing another cancer. In future they hope this test will be able to prevent survivors from getting further cancers.

The aims of the study are:

to measure the amount of circulating tumour DNA months and years after treatment before another primary cancer develops
measure the accuracy of tests to see how well they can detect cancers before symptoms appear or when the cancer is coming back

Please note – you won’t benefit directly if you take part in this trial. Instead, you may be helping find new ways of diagnosing cancer at an earlier stage. This might help to improve survival rates in the future.

Who can enter

The following bullet points are a summary of the entry conditions for this study. Talk to your doctor or the study team if you are unsure about any of these. They will be able to advise you.

Who can take part

You may be able to join this study if all of the following apply. You:

had non small cell lung cancer that was stage 1 to stage 3a
have had treatment with the aim to cure primary non small cell lung cancer
finished your treatment at least 2 years ago
are at least 18 years old

Who can’t take part

You cannot join this study if your primary lung cancer was a neuroendocrine tumour (NET) Open a glossary item .

Trial design

The team need 850 people to join the study.

You give blood samples every 6 months over a maximum of 5 years.

The team will also look at your medical records for any:

clinical information
x-ray results
scan results

Your doctor might want a routine sample of tissue (biopsy Open a glossary item ) taken as part of your care. If they do the team might ask for a small piece of the sample.

Hospital visits

The team will take the blood samples when you go into the clinic for your routine appointment. You might need to come in for extra visits to have the blood tests. This will depend on when and how often your routine appointments are.

If your routine clinic appointments are over the phone. Your doctor will arrange for you to have the blood tests elsewhere. There are different options available that your doctor will tell you about.