Scientists have published results from the largest validation study ever conducted of a multi-cancer early detection blood test, demonstrating that a single blood draw can reliably detect 12 different cancer types โ an average of four years before symptoms appear.
The test, developed by Grail Inc. and known as Galleri, works by detecting fragments of tumour DNA that circulate in the bloodstream. The validation study, which followed 100,000 people over five years, found that the test detected 82% of stage I and stage II cancers across 12 cancer types โ including pancreatic, ovarian, and liver cancers typically caught only at stage III or IV.
Pancreatic cancer has a five-year survival rate of just 12% when caught at stage IV โ but over 80% when caught at stage I. A test that reliably catches it years earlier could save hundreds of thousands of lives annually.
This is the kind of advance that comes along once in a generation. Early detection has always been the single most powerful tool in the oncology toolkit. โ Director, National Cancer Institute