The test can detect cancers that are not routinely tested and can find where the disease is coming from in the body with a high degree of accuracy.
Credit: Illustrative Image
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The NHS is launching the world’s largest test of a life-saving blood test that can detect more than 50 types of cancer before symptoms appear.
Some 140,000 volunteers will be recruited from eight areas of England to test the Galleri test, which is now available in the US.
The test can detect cancers that are not routinely tested and can find where the disease is coming from in the body with a high degree of accuracy.
NHS Executive Director Amanda Pritchard said: “This quick and simple blood test could usher in a revolution in cancer detection and treatment here and around the world.
“By detecting cancer before signs and symptoms appear, we have the best chance of treating it and we can give people the best chance of survival.”
The NHS trial will invite people of different backgrounds and ethnicities between the ages of 50 and 77 to participate.
They cannot have had a cancer diagnosis in the last three years.
Blood samples will be taken at mobile testing clinics over the next several weeks, 12 months from now, and again in two years.
The test looks for chemical changes in bits of genetic code that leak from tumors into the blood, something some cancers do long before symptoms.
Pritchard said the test could play an important role in the NHS ‘ambition to detect 75% of cancers at an early stage, when they are easier to treat.
It has been especially effective in finding cancers that are more difficult to identify early, such as cancers of the head and neck, intestine, lung, pancreas, and throat.
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But it cannot detect all cancers and would not replace NHS screening programs such as those for breast, cervical and bowel cancer.
The trial is led by Cancer Research UK and King’s College London Cancer Prevention Trials Unit together with Grail, who developed the Galleri test.
Professor Peter Sasieni, head of the unit and one of the trial’s principal investigators, said: “The test could be a game changer for early cancer detection and we are excited to lead this important research.
“Cancer screening tests can find cancers earlier, when they are most likely to be treated successfully, but not all types of screening work.”
The eight areas involved in the test will be Cheshire and Merseyside, Greater Manchester, the North East, West Midlands, East Midlands, East England, Kent and Medway, and South East London.
The first results are expected in 2023 and, if successful, the test could be in use as early as 2024.
Earlier research, published in June in the Annals Of Oncology, looked at how the test worked in 2,823 people with cancer and 1,254 people without cancer.
It correctly identified cancer in 51.5% of cases at all stages of the disease, with a false positive rate of only 0.5%.
For tumors that are not screened, such as cancers of the esophagus, liver, and pancreas, the ability to produce a positive test result was two times greater (65.6%) than for tumors that are screened, such as breast cancers. , intestine, cervix and prostate. cancers.
About 55% of blood cancers were detected and the tissue where the cancer was located was identified in 88.7% of cases.
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