Source: Primary; research by Yuval Ebenstein (Tel Aviv University) (November 9, 2026). AI-generated summary by biochip.com, published . Not independently reviewed.
Key takeaways
- A Tel Aviv University-led team tested an optical chip on blood samples from 51 lung cancer patients and 52 healthy controls.
- The test reported 93.1% sensitivity for stage 2 to 4 lung cancer and 90.3% specificity among healthy controls.
- The study provides no stage 1 results and does not establish performance in a real-world screening population.
A research team led by Yuval Ebenstein at Tel Aviv University has tested an optical chip that looks for lung cancer in blood by reading chemical tags on DNA, rather than sequencing genetic code. In a study of 103 people, the system distinguished lung cancer samples from healthy controls with reported accuracy above 90 percent. The approach could reduce reliance on expensive sequencing equipment, but the early results do not establish how well it works for stage 1 cancer or in routine screening.
Reading DNA with light
A liquid biopsy is a test that looks for signs of disease in a blood sample instead of removing tissue. Tumors release fragments of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) into the bloodstream, but these fragments are mixed with much more DNA from healthy cells, making them difficult to find.
Rather than reading the genetic letters in each fragment, the chip detects chemical tags attached to DNA. The tags act like a surface fingerprint: cancer cells can leave different patterns from healthy cells, and the system uses those patterns to distinguish tumor-related material.
To analyze a sample, technicians extract free-floating DNA, attach light-emitting markers, and bind the labeled fragments to a specialized chip. An optical scanner measures how light reflects from marked regions on the chip, producing a pattern that the researchers use to identify cancer-related DNA.
What the study found
The researchers tested blood samples from 51 people with lung cancer and 52 healthy controls. They first identified a signature across 170 genomic regions, then assessed the test using a separate group of samples in a blinded analysis, meaning the laboratory team did not know the diagnoses while testing those samples.
For stage 2 through stage 4 lung cancer, the test had 93.1 percent sensitivity, or the ability to detect cancer when it was present. Its specificity among healthy controls was 90.3 percent, meaning it correctly identified about nine in ten of those participants as not having cancer. The team also reported that the optical patterns distinguished adenocarcinoma from squamous cell carcinoma, two major lung cancer subtypes.
The full procedure took two to three days, and the researchers estimated processing costs at about $60 per blood sample. They also observed that the DNA patterns shifted toward those seen in healthy controls in patients who responded well to treatment, while patterns in patients who did not respond showed no meaningful change. That finding points to a possible use in treatment monitoring, but it is an initial observation.
Why This Matters
Conventional tests that search for rare tumor DNA often depend on deep genetic sequencing, which requires specialized equipment and analysis. The team’s optical approach avoids sequencing, and the researchers say it could be used with scanners found in standard clinical laboratories. That could make the method easier to run in facilities without dedicated sequencing resources, though the study did not establish real-world access or clinical readiness.
The evidence remains preliminary. The reported sensitivity covers stages 2 to 4, and the study provides no results for stage 1, when tumors may release less DNA into the blood. It also compared known cancer cases with healthy controls, not with people who have smoking-related lung disease, infections, or benign nodules, so performance in a typical screening population remains an open question.
The next step is larger testing that includes early-stage disease and a wider range of patients and lung conditions. Until that evidence is available, the chip is an experimental platform, not an established lung cancer screening test.
Topics: Cancer · Diagnostics & precision medicine
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