Dubai: An international team of scientists led by a Saudi Arabia-based Indian has made a major breakthrough in lung cancer diagnosis.

The team, led by Vadevel Masilamani of King Saud University's (KSU) College of Science, has discovered a new lung cancer biomarker that is expected to greatly help in the early diagnosis of the disease.

A biomarker is any substance that is measured biologically and associated with an increased risk of disease. Cancer biomarkers are certain proteins found highly elevated in blood plasma due to the abnormal metabolic activity of cancer cells.

The research breakthrough was the result of a joint collaboration between Masilamani's KSU team, scientist Elango of the Florida-based Thendrel Inc., and MCD, an Indian diagnostic centre, the local media reported.

Masilamani and his team, the reports said, discovered a totally new biomarker after he employed a laser-based optical analysis of biomarkers found in blood plasma, urine and sputum. The new biomarker, it has been discovered, is found exclusively in the plasma and sputum of lung cancer patients.

"This would mean that we can, for the first time, quantify the damage done to the lungs by heavy smoking. We can warn heavy smokers with facts and figures, that they are only two years or three years away from serious malignancy," the reports quoted Masilamani as saying.