NHS To Pilot Blood Test That Identifies 50 Types of Cancer

NHS England will pilot a blood test that can detect more than 50 types of cancer before clinical signs or symptoms emerge. This includes ovarian, pancreatic, oesophageal, bowel and lung cancers.

Developed by US-based medtech company GRAIL, the Galleri test uses a machine learning algorithm to examine cell-free DNA (cfDNA) that leaks from tumours into the bloodstream. It detects chemical changes, known as methylation patterns, with a false positive rate of only 0.5%.

Initial studies used patients whose cancer had already been diagnosed through other means and correctly identified cancers in over 50% of cases and correctly located the tissues affected in 88.7% of cases.