With over 1.6 million reported deaths annually, lung cancer is the second leading cause of death in the world. Despite an improvement in overall survival through chemotherapy, prognosis remains poor with limited treatment options for almost all patients at the advanced stage of non-small cell lung cancer. A new and exciting treatment modality has been recently introduced in the name of immunotherapy, which persuades the immune system to actively participate in cancer therapy. However, there is an unmet need for a rapid, specific and non-invasive procedure to identify candidates for immunotherapy and other targeted therapies. Our proposed technologies consists in using specific cell surface proteins that can be detected via respective antibodies linked to metallic nanoparticles. Multiple metallic nanoparticles with different optical properties are readily available to selectively target cell type-specific epitopes in a single preparation. Label detection is straightforward, and does not require costly equipment or complex interpretation algorithm. This project can be considered pioneering, as clinical validation on human cytology samples will ensure highly beneficial accuracy of diagnosis and optimal selection of immunological treatment to consequently improve the health of Canadian patients. To realize this innovative research project, we put together an excellent multidisciplinary and complementary team of internationally renowned scientists and industrial partners coming from the full spectrum of knowledge involved in this project. This team has already acquired a strong expertise in metallic nanoparticles and immunoplasmonic detection for a variety of biomedical diagnostics. Our excellence has been demonstrated by publications in high-ranking journals, patents and Disclosures of inventions. Our industrial partners, Photon etc. and ORS Inc, and collaborator TRIBVN Healthcare complete our skills in technology transfer and commercialization of this novel clinical cytology cancer diagnostic tools.