Associate Professor Arutha Kulasinghe from UQ’s Frazer Institute said the approach could change how treatment decisions are made.

“This is a step towards truly personalized lung cancer care,” Dr. Kulasinghe said.

“At the moment, clinicians often have to make treatment decisions without a clear picture of how a patient will respond.

“What we’re showing is that information already exists in the blood.”

The research analyzed blood samples from NSCLC patients at Princess Alexandra Hospital before and after surgery and immunotherapy to track how protein levels changed over time.