Britain tests blood test that could detect 50 types of cancer

The UK’s National Health Service plans to try a simple blood test, which could uncover over 50 types of cancer, and is expected to help thousands of people, allowing the disease to be treated more successfully than one early stage, according to CNN.

The “Gallery” blood test, developed by the “Grill” Healthcare company in California, will be tested with 165,000 patients, in what the National Health Services Authority in Britain described as “the first global agreement” in a press release yesterday (Friday).

Grill, whose business focuses on the early detection of cancer, is backed by investors including tech billionaire Bill Gates and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.

The NHS hopes the blood test will be particularly useful in identifying types of cancer that are currently difficult to diagnose and treat early.

“Early detection,” said Simon Stevens, executive director of the National Health Service. Especially for difficult-to-treat cases such as ovarian and pancreatic cancer, it has the potential to save many lives.

He added that more than a thousand people are diagnosed with cancer every day in the UK.

The pilot program, slated to start in mid-2021, will include 165,000 people, 140,000 of whom are between 50 and 79 years old, who do not have symptoms but will undergo annual blood tests over a three-year period.

The press release says the remaining 25,000 participants will be people with possible symptoms of cancer and will be offered a blood test to speed up their diagnosis after being transferred to hospital in the normal way.

The Health Services Authority said it expects the results to be released by 2023, after which it is hoped that a million people will be tested by 2025, thus expanding the issue to a wider population. thereafter.

In England, about half of all cancer cases are currently diagnosed at stage 1 or 2; But the Health Services Authority aims to increase that figure to three-quarters by 2028, according to the press release.

“Adding a gallery test to the current standard of care has the potential to cut the number of advanced stage cancers by almost half, which could reduce the total number of cancer deaths in the UK, per means, ”Gray said. Almost a fifth ”.

Lawrence Young, professor of molecular oncology at the University of Warwick, said the “Gallery” test is one of many new blood tests being developed to detect cancer at a very early stage, that is. that is, when it can be processed more easily.

He continued, “There are a number of trials evaluating this approach, as well as a publication examining the test (Gallery) in 6,689 participants, and it has had very encouraging results in over 50 different types of cancer at. different stages of development. “

However, not all cancer experts agree that the NHS should try a “gallery” blood test. Paul Farroah, professor of cancer epidemiology at the University of Cambridge, said he doubted the scientific basis for the experiment based on the limited published research available.

He explained that “the test (Gallery) may be able to detect cancer in the blood of people with early cancer, despite the weak evidence that it does so effectively. The NHS should not invest in such tests until they are properly evaluated in large-scale, well-executed clinical trials.

Michelle Mitchell, UK director general for cancer research, said tests such as those developed by Grill have “significant transformative potential” if they are found to be effective in detecting late stage cancer. early.