Quantification of microRNAs in Diagnosis of Pulmonary Nodules

One of the main challenges of thoracic oncology lies in earlier diagnosis of lung cancer to improve survival rate, wich is about 15% at 5 years. This poor prognosis is often linked to late diagnosis. Efforts are being made worldwide to offer testing in patients at risk or earlier diagnosis of lung cancer in order to offer the patient curative treatments. Indeed, supported at the stage of nodule (less than 3 cm lesion), lung cancer is curable by surgery in 80% of patients. Nevertheless, there are many differential diagnoses and access to these lesions is often difficult and risky. In this context, the management of pulmonary nodules, which can be either benign lesions or beginners cancers, is a real challenge for pulmonologists and thoracic oncologists every day: it is important not to disregard a potentially operable nodule and avoiding offer patients invasive procedures for benign nodules. Indeed, many procedures (endoscopy, puncture under scanner, thoracotomy) are made to determine if suspicious nodules are benign or not. In the large National Lung Screening Trial, 28% of the procedures were associated with complications (including 11% classified severe and 16 deaths). It is therefore essential to develop non-invasive tools to refine treatment decisions.