Researchers identified a 14-protein blood signature that can predict lung cancer risk up to five years before diagnosis. The work, published in Cell, was a collaboration between the Francis Crick Institute and University College London, and co-led by Walter and Eliza Hall Institute laboratory head Clare Weeden. The study suggests the signature could help identify individuals who might benefit from preventive interventions—an application enabled by proteomic profiling that captures disease-related biology before radiographic or clinical detection. The authors positioned the approach as a potential complement to existing risk stratification methods, with the goal of improving the selection of populations for prevention trials and early intervention strategies. Overall, the findings reinforce the growing role of multi-protein biomarkers in enabling earlier risk detection for high-mortality cancers like lung cancer, where delays remain a key limitation of screening approaches.