"Currently, doctors do not have adequate methods for determining the prognosis of NSCLC patients or for identifying which patients will benefit from certain treatment options. These new algorithms could prove helpful in both areas, according to background information in a news release about the studies."

"In one study, a team of international researchers developed an algorithm to predict the outcomes of NSCLC patients treated with two tyrosine kinase inhibitors -- gefitinib and erlotinib. The algorithm is based on the pattern of a group of proteins in a patient's blood serum."

"A test of the algorithm showed that patients predicted to have a good survival outcome after treatment survived for a median of 306 days, while patients predicted to have a poor outcomes survived for a median of 107 days."

""In the clinical development of biomarkers for the individualization of therapy, it is important to distinguish between those that can accurately classify patients according to whether
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