Serum miRNA Profiling to Track Treatment Response in Lung Cancer

Lung cancer is a leading cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide, with most cases diagnosed at advanced stages. Treatment effectiveness is constrained by a limited number of effective interventions, rapid development of tumor resistance, and significant tumor heterogeneity. Being able to better monitor the response to treatment outcome and identify biomarkers representative of treatment failure and/or cancer relapse is essential to improve patient outcomes. Serum offers a minimally invasive and scalable source of biomarkers for screening and monitoring. Circulating miRNAs in blood are stable and can indicate cancer activity, making serum effective for detecting early, often asymptomatic disease. While bronchoalveolar lavage(BAL) fluid contains key respiratory biomarkers but requires bronchoscopy, making it invasive and costly. Thus, BAL is mostly used for symptomatic or hospitalised patients, limiting its use for screening asymptomatic people or routine monitoring.
This project aims to develop and validate a minimally invasive serum miRNA biomarker panel that 1) discriminates lung cancer patients, including those with early-stage, asymptomatic disease, from non-cancer controls, and 2) predicts and monitors treatment response and early relapse. By combining cancer sampling at three key time points pre-treatment, during treatment, and six months post-treatment with molecular profiling and bioinformatic analysis, we hope to generate a panel of potential diagnostic biomarkers to take forwards with future mechanistic studies.