Researchers have welcomed a potential “paradigm shift” in cancer screening, after publishing the results of a new trial that found that a simple blood test can detect signs of multiple different cancers without clear symptoms.
Not only can the blood test reportedly detect cancer, but it can also identify where the signal for cancer is coming from in the body. Researchers believe the test could help medical professionals refine the tests that should then be carried out to confirm a cancer diagnosis and begin treatment.
Doctors hope that the test will save lives by detecting cancer earlier, meaning surgery and treatment could potentially be more effective.
6,600 adults over the age of 50 – and thus at a greater risk of getting cancer – were offered the blood test in the Pathfinder study, and dozens of new cases of disease were subsequently identified. Many cancers were found at an early stage, and almost three-quarters were cancers not routinely screened for.
The test was carried out in the United States, where more than 600,000 people die from cancer yearly.
The Galleri test looks for cancer DNA in the blood, and it is the first time results from the test have been returned to patients and their doctors, to guide cancer examinations and any necessary treatment.
The Galleri test has been hailed as a possible “game-changer’ by the UK’s National Health Service, which is due to report results from a major trial involving 165,000 people, next year. Doctors have expressed hope that the test will save lives by detecting cancer early enough for surgery and treatment to be more effective, however the technology is still in the process of being developed.
In the study, potential cancer was flagged in 92 participants, while further tests confirmed solid tumours of blood cancer in 35 people, or 1.4 per cent of the study group of 6,529 volunteers. The test can also predict where in the body the cancer is, enabling doctors to fast-track the follow-up work needed to locate and confirm a cancer.
Among the confirmed cancers, researchers said 71 per cent had cancer types that are not routinely screened for, such as uterus and pancreatic cancer, while 48 per cent of non-recurrent cancers found were in early stages.
The prediction of where the cancer signal was coming from in the body was found to have 97 per cent accuracy.
Josh Ofman, the president of GRAIL, the company behind the testing technique, commented: “Bending the cancer mortality curve will require earlier detection of more cancer”.
“Unfortunately, the burden of cancer will grow with the demographic tidal wave, as the absolute risk of developing any cancer increases as we get older,” he said.
“However, a world with more single cancer screening tests is simply clinically and economically untenable as each single cancer screening test has a false positive rate of five to 10 per cent”.
According to GRAIL, the Galleri test is able to detect signals from more than 50 types of cancer.
Chief Medical Officer at GRAIL, Jeffrey Venstrom, said that when the testing was done in conjunction with standard screening, the number of cancers detected “more than doubled”.
These included Stage 1 cancers of the liver, small intestine, and uterus, and Stage 2 bone, pancreatic, and oropharyngeal cancers.
“This is particularly notable given the PATHFINDER population was heavily screened with higher-than-average rates for mammography, colonoscopy, and low-dose CT (computed tomography) lung scans”, Venstrom said.
The results of the study were presented at the European Society for Medical Oncology Congress 2022 which took place in Paris.
Commenting on the findings, Deb Schrag, chair of the Department of Medicine at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Centre in New York, said:
“The PATHFINDER study is an exciting first step towards fundamental change in the approach to cancer screening”. Schrag added that the study provided “a glimpse of what the future may hold” with the chance to screen using blood tests to detect cancers “at their earliest and most treatable stages”.
Almost 45,000 people in Ireland get cancer each year, according to the Irish Cancer Society, making Ireland the country with the highest cancer incidence in Europe.
This figure comprises both invasive and non-invasive tumours, as well as non-melanoma skin cancers. 1 in 4 deaths in Ireland can be attributed to cancer, accounting for approximately 30 per cent of all deaths each year. The five most diagnosed types of cancer in Ireland are skin cancer, prostate cancer, breast cancer, bowel cancer, and lung cancer.
While the incidence of cancer in Ireland is growing, more people are surviving cancer than ever before, according to the Irish Cancer Society.