Researchers announced on Sunday that a simple blood test may be the key to detecting lung cancer in its earliest stages, in turn increasing the likelihood of survival.

Lung cancer is typically detected in advanced stages, which is a major reason that only 15% of lung cancer patients survive two years after diagnosis. A new study, however, indicates that a specific genetic profile for lung cancer is present in the blood and can be perceived with 88% accuracy.

This discovery was presented at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology this past weekend. Though more studies on this initial research will soon follow, the findings indicate that detecting a genetic disposition for lung cancer in the blood can help predict the disease's occurrence within two years.

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