A new blood test for cancer could save your life someday

A new type of blood test that can detect certain cancers in your body has shown a lot of promise in its initial testing according to a study from scientists in the United Kingdom. 

Cancer can be easy to treat if it’s caught early enough by doctors but the problem is that many of today’s most dangerous cancers don’t have proper testing for early detection. 

Researchers at the medical technology company Grail were hoping to change all of that with their revolutionary Galleri blood test and results from its first study look promising. 

In 2021, Grial partnered with the University of Oxford to help study its new multi-cancer blood test detection technology in order to evaluate its effectiveness in a clinical setting. 

The goal was to show the Galleri test could detect cancer earlier than other methods as well as prove that the new technology could simplify the diagnostic process for doctors. 

“The process of diagnosing cancer can often be lengthy and involve expensive imaging or invasive biopsies specific to only one cancer,” said lead researcher Mark Middleton said in a press release when the partnership between Grail and Oxford was announced. 

Middleton added that invasive testing often only occurs after a patient has presented to doctors with symptoms after their cancer has advanced to a far more dangerous stage. 

“If we can intervene at an earlier stage and detect cancer using minimally invasive tests, such as Galleri, we have the potential to accelerate cancer diagnoses and reduce the number of diagnostic procedures,” Middleton continued.

Ultimately these tests could transform cancer patient care within the next 5 years by improving the chance of successful treatment and survival,” Middleton said. 

The Galleri test was designed to detect 50 different types of cancer with 47 of the types lacking proper screening in the UK according to a University of Oxford press release. 

Results from the study showed the Galleri blood test diagnosed 323 people with cancer and 244 of them actually haved the disease in some form, giving the new multi-cancer technology a success rate of 75.5% according to the University of Oxford. 

The overall sensitivity of the test was pegged at 66.3% with it catching 24.2% of Stage I cancers and 95.3% of cancers in Stage VI. The University of Oxford noted in its press release on the study that the Galleri test got more accurate with age and later stages.  

“This is a fantastic example of how academia and industry can work together for patient benefit,” remarked Helen McShane, Director of the National Institute for Health and Care Research’s Oxford Biomedical Research Center. 

“We are committed to diagnosing cancers earlier, when they can be cured, and this study is an important step on that journey,” McShane added. 

BBC News noted that the National Health Service in Britain has also been researching the Galleri blood test to see if it can be used to find hidden cancers in the human body. 

Results from those investigations should be available within the next year, and if they are successful then BBC News said the Galleri test could be rolled out to over a million people between 2024 and 2025.