Key Benefits

'- Understand how lung cancer affects salt balance, bone health, and stress hormones.

• Flag low sodium from water-retaining hormone effects, common in small-cell lung cancer.
• Spot high calcium from squamous tumors or bone spread, preventing dehydration, constipation, and confusion.
• Detect cortisol excess from tumor-made ACTH, clarifying weight gain, weakness, and high glucose.
• Guide care for low adrenal cortisol from immunotherapy, protecting blood pressure, energy, safety.
• Inform chemotherapy, steroid, and hydration decisions when sodium or calcium are abnormal, improving tolerance.
• Guide bone-protective drugs and calcium/vitamin D monitoring, especially with metastases or steroid use.
• Best interpreted with albumin (for calcium), morning timing, ACTH level, and symptoms.

What are Lung Cancer

Lung cancer biomarkers are tumor signals that reveal how a person’s cancer is built and behaves. They come from the cancer itself—changes in its DNA, RNA, and proteins, as well as immune markers in and around the tumor—and can be found in tumor tissue or in fragments shed into the blood (circulating tumor DNA). Testing these markers maps the tumor’s “wiring,” showing whether it is driven by a specific switch and which medicines can turn that switch off. In non–small cell lung cancer, this often means looking for driver mutations or rearrangements (EGFR, ALK, ROS1, BRAF, MET, RET, KRAS) and immune markers that predict benefit from immunotherapy (PD-L1). Knowing a tumor’s biomarkers helps select targeted therapies, anticipate how fast the disease may progress (prognosis), and monitor how well treatment is working over time. In short, biomarker testing turns a general diagnosis into a personalized treatment plan by matching the biology of the cancer to the therapy most likely to help.

Why are Lung Cancer biomarkers important?

Lung cancer biomarkers are measurable signals in blood or tissues that reveal how a tumor is behaving and how the body is responding. Because lung cancers can secrete hormone-like substances and disrupt fluid, bone, and stress systems, these biomarkers offer a window into brain function, kidney and bone balance, metabolism, and the neuroendocrine axis—all far beyond the lungs.

Sodium is typically about 135–145, and health usually sits near the middle. Calcium is roughly 8.5–10.5, with optimal in the mid-range. Cortisol follows a daily rhythm, peaking in the morning (often mid-teens) and dropping by evening; the curve, not a single number, is what “optimal” means. Deviations can reflect paraneoplastic syndromes, treatment effects, or organ stress.

When values run low, physiology tilts. Low sodium often signals SIADH from small-cell lung cancer: excess antidiuretic effect dilutes blood, water shifts into brain cells, and nausea, headaches, confusion, or seizures can follow—older adults are especially vulnerable. Low calcium, less common, may appear with extensive bone involvement or low vitamin D, causing tingling, muscle cramps, or irregular heartbeats. Low cortisol can occur with adrenal metastases or after steroid exposure, leading to fatigue, weight loss, low blood pressure, and worsening hyponatremia; in children and teens, it can blunt growth and energy.

High values tell different stories. Hypernatremia suggests dehydration and neurologic slowing. High calcium—classic in squamous-cell cancers via PTHrP—drives thirst, constipation, confusion, and kidney strain. Excess cortisol from ectopic ACTH (often small-cell) causes muscle wasting, high glucose, infection risk, thin skin, and in women, menstrual disruption; in youth, growth suppression.

Big picture: these biomarkers knit together water balance, bone turnover, brain function, and stress hormones. Tracking them helps flag paraneoplastic syndromes early, anticipate complications, and understand how lung cancer is influencing whole-body physiology—factors tied to symptoms, hospitalizations, and long-term outcomes.

What Insights Will I Get?

Lung cancer disrupts whole‑body regulation long before and beyond a tumor. Biomarkers tie lung function to energy production, fluid balance, nerve signaling, bone turnover, metabolism, and immunity. At Superpower, we test Sodium, Calcium, and Cortisol to read these system signals together.

Sodium governs fluid balance and nerve/muscle excitability. In lung cancer, especially small‑cell types, inappropriate ADH release (SIADH) can drive low sodium, reflecting water retention and brain vulnerability. Stable sodium suggests intact osmotic control and more reliable perfusion and cognition.

Calcium underpins bone integrity, muscle contraction, clotting, and cell signaling. Lung tumors—classically squamous cell—can raise calcium via PTH‑related peptide or bone metastases. Elevated calcium signals catabolic, dehydrating stress with cardiac and neurologic impact. Steady calcium implies balanced bone turnover and paraneoplastic quiescence.

Cortisol is the body’s stress hormone coordinating glucose availability, inflammation, and immune tone (HPA axis). Lung cancers can produce ACTH ectopically, causing excess cortisol and a catabolic, immunosuppressive state. A predictable day‑night cortisol pattern indicates resilient stress regulation aligned with metabolic efficiency and immune surveillance.

Notes: Interpretation is shaped by age, acute illness, hydration, and hospitalization. Diuretics, SSRIs, antiepileptics, and opioids affect sodium. Albumin level, parathyroid disease, vitamin D status, and immobilization shift calcium; correct for albumin when needed. Cortisol varies by time of day and is altered by glucocorticoids, oral estrogens, depression, and Cushing’s/Adrenal disorders. Assay methods and reference ranges differ across labs.