New research to revolutionise understanding of lung cancer

Researchers at UCL and University College London Hospital NHS Foundation Trust are involved in a landmark study to unlock the secrets of lung cancer, tracking in real time how lung tumours develop and evolve as patients receive treatment. This is one of the largest ever studies of lung cancer patients globally and over nine years it will examine exactly how lung cancers mutate, adapt and become resistant to treatments. The study - called TRACERx (Tracking Cancer Evolution through Therapy) - has been launched by Cancer Research UK and will recruit 850 lung cancer patients from across the UK and take samples of their tumour before and following surgery and subsequently if the disease recurs. Biopsies will be taken from different parts of each patient's tumour and analysed with the latest technology to give a more comprehensive genetic profile. Different parts of a tumour can evolve independently, so a sample from one region alone might contain different genetic changes to another sample, elsewhere in the tumour. Patients will also have blood tests to examine DNA from the cancer that might be circulating in the bloodstream. We plan to harness new sequencing technologies to trace the genetic evolution of cancer over the course of the disease.