New Imaging Technology May Help Predict Aggressiveness of Lung Cancer

Case Western Reserve and Cleveland Clinic are leading development of a computerized tissue-imaging program that could soon help identify which lung cancer patients are likely to face an earlier recurrence of the disease.

With that information, cancer experts could more accurately determine which lung cancer patients should undergo aggressive post-surgery chemotherapy—and which are unlikely to benefit from it.

“Right now, virtually all early-stage lung cancer patients get surgery,” said Anant Madabhushi, founding director of the Center for Computational Imaging and Personalized Diagnostics (CCIPD) at the Case School of Engineering. “The problem is oncologists don’t currently have sufficient information to know which of these patients will also receive added benefit from chemotherapy.”