In the case of patients with low risk of lung cancer, the current diagnostic procedure can sometimes be invasive and unnecessary. However, new research of detecting lung cancer by NASAL SWAB may have uncovered a less invasive, less costly way to screen these patients. New research suggests that a simple nasal swab could accurately determine whether a patient has lung cancer.A team of researchers from Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) in Massachusetts may have found a more convenient way to determine whether lung lesions are malignant. The findings were published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. Lung lesions - or solitary pulmonary nodules - are small growths in the lungs that are usually detected incidentally when a patient has an X-ray for other reasons. Although physicians are typically worried about cancer upon discovering the lesions, these are benign in the majority of cases. For instance, of all the patients screened using computed tomography (CT) as part of the National Lung Cancer Screening Trial, 25 percent had a lung lesion, but approximately 95 percent of these cases were, in the end, found to be benign. As the authors of the new study point out, many of the patients who ultimately receive a benign diagnosis undergo invasive medical procedures such as surgical lung biopsy. The new research, however, uncovers a genomic tool that could enable physicians to tell whether a patient has a malignant lesion by simply taking a swab of their nose. Nasal epithelium hosts lung cancer biomarker BUSM researchers collected nasal epithelial brushings from patients who were in the process of having their lung lesions evaluated. These participants were people who currently and formerly smoked, and who were enrolled in the two Airway Epithelium Gene Expression in the Diagnosis of Lung Cancer clinical trials. The epithelium is a membrane of cellular tissue that, in this case, encloses and protects the nasal cavity. Scientists examined these nasal epithelial brushings and profiled the participants' gene expression by using microarrays - a genetic tool commonly used to detect gene mutations, such as in BRCA1 or BRCA2, in a person's DNA. BUSM Researchers concluded that like Brocnchial secretions genetic changes as done after bronchoscopic evaluation of Lung cancer similiarly nasal epithelium genetic changes can determine presence of absence of underlying benign or malignant cancers of LUNG.