Washington, D.C. – September 29, 2026 -- LUNGevity Foundation has committed $2 million to fund two three-year clinical research projects aimed at improving the diagnosis of indeterminate pulmonary nodules (IPNs), a condition affecting more than 1.5 million Americans annually after routine chest CT scans.
The funding, awarded through the 2026 RTFCCR/LUNGevity Early Detection Award in partnership with the Rising Tide Foundation for Clinical Cancer Research (RTFCCR), targets a diagnostic gap that currently forces many patients into unnecessary invasive procedures or prolonged uncertainty when non-invasive tools fail to determine whether a lung nodule is benign or malignant.
UCLA Team Receives $1 Million to Validate Blood-and-Imaging Biomarker Test
Steven Dubinett, MD, of the University of California, Los Angeles, will lead a $1 million study integrating radiomic CT imaging analysis with a cell-free DNA methylome blood test to stratify cancer risk in IPN patients. The trial will validate the combined biomarker approach across a cohort of 500 patients at UCLA and Veterans Affairs hospitals, with the goal of delivering a non-invasive risk-assessment tool for clinical use.
Harvard-Affiliated Study Tests AI Model Sybil on 340 Patients
Lecia Sequist, MD, MPH, of Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, will receive $1 million for the RESOLVE Study, evaluating Sybil, an open-source AI model that estimates lung cancer risk directly from CT scans without human image annotation. The trial will enroll 340 adults aged 35 to 75 with low-risk pulmonary nodules to test the model's real-world performance across a diverse clinical population.
Sponsors Cite Potential to Cut Unnecessary Biopsies and Reach Underrepresented Patients
Upal Basu Roy, PhD, MPH, executive director of LUNGevity Research, said the two approaches—combining radiomics with liquid biopsy versus AI-driven imaging analysis—offer clinicians distinct pathways to bring clarity to patients facing uncertainty after a CT scan. LUNGevity and RTFCCR project that successful outcomes could reduce unnecessary biopsies and surgeries, accelerate identification of high-risk patients needing prompt intervention, and expand early detection access for women without traditional lung cancer risk factors, a demographic representing a growing share of new diagnoses.
Zoraide Granchi, PhD, senior scientific program manager at RTFCCR, noted both projects were developed with input from patient partners alongside the lead researchers. LUNGevity also acknowledged Upstage Lung Cancer for its continued support of early detection research funding.