According to a report published in the new issue of the British medical journal The Lancet, U.S. researchers have developed a set of genetic tests that can roughly determine the high risk of death in lung cancer patients, and after screening out patients with a higher risk of death, additional chemotherapy and other means can be taken to help treat them, according to Xinhua. Researchers at the University of California and other institutions reported that they analyzed the disease and genetic information of more than 300 patients with non-small cell lung cancer and found that the activity of 14 genes in patients could help predict their high risk of death after receiving treatment. To confirm the validity of this approach, the researchers then conducted validation tests on more than 1,000 patients. The results showed that those patients whose genetic analysis resulted in a low risk of death had a survival rate of 74 percent over the five years of follow-up; those whose genetic testing showed an intermediate risk of death had a survival rate of 57 percent; and those whose genetic testing showed a high risk of death had a survival rate of only 44 percent. This genetic testing helps determine whether patients should receive additional chemotherapy, the researchers said. In the early stages of lung cancer treatment, only surgery to remove the tumor is generally used to treat the disease, but some patients often have hidden cancer cells in their bodies that cause the cancer to recur after surgery, and patients with a high risk of death tend to fall into this category. For this type of patients, chemotherapy can be used to kill the hidden cancer cells. However, studies have shown that for the entire patient population, the use of chemotherapy after surgical treatment does not significantly help improve survival rates.