Tel Aviv University researchers announce fast, affordable test for diagnosing lung cancer

Researchers at Tel Aviv University, in collaboration with JaxBio Technologies and physicians at Bnai Zion Medical Center in Haifa and Sheba Medical Center near Tel Aviv, have developed a blood test that could offer a faster and far less expensive way to detect lung cancer than traditional DNA sequencing.

The new methodology costs about $60 and correctly identified 93% of stage 2–4 lung cancer cases in an initial study while ruling out cancer in 90% of participants in a healthy control group. The research was published Monday in the peer-reviewed journal Nature Precision Oncology.

“Lung cancer is one of the most fatal cancers and one of the most common cancers,” said Dr. Abed Agbarya, director of the oncology department at Bnei Zion Medical Center and leader of the research group that produced the results.

He told The Times of Israel, “Most people arrive in the last stages of the disease. If we can discover the disease in its early stages, we can go to surgery. We can go to a full cure. The five-year survival rate would be much better.”

The researchers are now conducting additional testing at hospitals in Israel and Europe. This phase of clinical trials is expected to conclude by mid-2027, after which the test could become more widely available.

Lung cancer is responsible for nearly 1.8 million deaths worldwide each year, including around 2,000 in Israel. Traditional DNA-sequencing tests can be expensive and time-consuming, potentially limiting access to people who might benefit from earlier detection.

“Many people with undiagnosed lung cancer come to the emergency room during the winter with a bloody cough and shortness of breath,” Agbarya explained. “They have COPD and emphysema symptoms. Up to 60% of patients are diagnosed with lung cancer only when they are in advanced stages. Patients don’t want to do the [DNA-sequencing] test. That’s why we want to catch lung cancer in people early, before they are symptomatic.”

Dr. Yuval Ebenstein of Tel Aviv University, who was also part of the research team, explained to The Times of Israel that the test works by identifying chemical changes in DNA associated with tumors:

“We realized that chemical changes in DNA characterize different tumors. We invented a chemical reaction that lights up these chemical changes. We took a bunch of little DNA molecules out of the bloodstream. We labeled them and tracked the light they emitted, which signified the chemical changes caused by the cancer.”

“We were then able to accurately detect stage 2-4 lung cancer,” he said. “It’s just a blood test, and it’s very cheap. It doesn’t cost thousands of shekels. The test is designed to give solutions to low-income countries because it’s very simple and doesn’t need a lot of infrastructure. We’re hoping that it could be integrated into routine blood tests.”

Dr. Ari Raphael, head of translational oncology at the Davidoff Cancer Center at Rabin Medical Center, told The Times of Israel that lung cancer is “the world’s deadliest cancer precisely because it is rarely caught early enough.”

“What I find genuinely clever about this study is its ability to identify cancer-related DNA changes through a simple blood test, without expensive sequencing,” he said. “It detects stage 2-4 cancer with over 90% sensitivity and specificity, correctly flagging patients and correctly clearing healthy individuals.”

Raphael said that “a fast and affordable tool like this, even at these stages, could meaningfully aid both diagnosis and treatment monitoring.”

He pointed out, however, that it was tested in just over 100 patients.

“The real challenge ahead is proving it works at Stage 1, when curative treatment is most within reach,” Raphael said. “That is the bar every liquid biopsy must clear before earning a place in the clinic.”

Agbarya said he was motivated to conduct the research in part by the large numbers of Israeli Arab men who die of cancer, which he attributed in part to the prevalence of smoking in the population.

“In the north, in Haifa and Nazareth where I work with these patients, I see that they can’t afford to travel to the center for treatments,” he said. “They need somebody who invests in them and brings them new treatments. I feel like this is my mission. I want to treat my community, and even protect and diagnose them in the early stages of their disease. They need this support.”

Agbarya also said that his Jewish colleagues had become some of his best friends during the research process, describing their collaboration as a potential catalyst for positive change in Israeli society.

“Yuval [Ebenstein] was one of the first people I called to say that my son got into Tel Aviv University Medical School,” Agbarya said. “Despite the last really horrible few years that we have had, and what we are still going through, we’re working together on projects. We still have this hope.”

For both Agbarya and Ebenstein, the research also carries personal significance.

Ebenstein’s interest in the work was sparked by his stepfather’s diagnosis with an early stage of multiple myeloma, a type of blood cancer.

“That’s how I got interested in studying this,” he said. “I realized that the technologies that we’re developing in the lab are the right tools to follow cancers.”