The Pathfinder study offered the blood test to more than 6,600 adults aged 50 and over and detected dozens of new cases of the disease. Many cancers were at an early stage, and nearly three-quarters were forms that were not routinely screened. It is the first time that results from the Galleri test, which looks for cancer DNA in the blood, have been returned to patients and their doctors to guide cancer research and any necessary treatment. The Galleri test has been described as a potential “game changer” by NHS England, which is expected to report results from a large trial involving 165,000 people next year. Doctors hope the test will save lives by detecting cancer early enough for surgery and treatment to be more effective, but the technology is still being developed. “I think what’s exciting about this new paradigm and idea is that many of these were cancers for which we have no standard screening,” said Dr. Deb Schrag, senior investigator on the study at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York. . he said at the European Society of Medical Oncology meeting in Paris on Sunday. In the Pathfinder study, 6,621 adults aged 50 and over were offered the Galleri blood test. For 6,529 volunteers, the test was negative, but it signaled possible cancer in 92. Further tests confirmed solid tumors or blood cancer in 35 people, or 1.4% of the study group. The test found two cancers in a woman who had breast and endometrial tumors. In addition to detecting the presence of disease, the test predicts where the cancer is, allowing doctors to fast-track the follow-up work needed to detect and confirm a cancer. “The mark of origin has been very helpful in directing the type of processing,” Schrag said. “When the blood test was positive, it usually took less than three months to complete the work.” The test detected 19 solid tumors in tissues such as the breast, liver, lung and colon, but also detected ovarian and pancreatic cancers, which are usually detected at a later stage and have low survival rates. The remaining cases were blood cancers. Of the 36 cancers detected in total, 14 were early-stage and 26 were forms of the disease that were not routinely screened. Further analysis found that the blood test was negative for 99.1% of those who were cancer-free, meaning that only a small percentage of healthy people received a false-positive result. About 38% of those who tested positive turned out to have cancer. Schrag said the test was not yet ready for population screening and that people should continue with standard cancer screening while the technology improves. “But this still suggests a glimpse of what the future might hold with a really, really different approach to cancer screening,” he said. Archie Bland and Nimo Omer take you to the top stories and what they mean, free every weekday morning Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain information about charities, online advertising and content sponsored by external parties. For more information, see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and Google’s Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. Fabrice André, director of research at the Gustave Roussy cancer center in Villejuif, France, said: “Within the next five years, we will need more doctors, surgeons and nurses, along with more diagnostic and treatment infrastructure, to care for the growing number of people which will be detected by early detection multi-cancer tests”. Naser Turabi, director of documentation and implementation at Cancer Research UK, said: “Blood tests for multiple types of cancer used to belong in the realm of science fiction, but are now an area of cancer research that is showing great promise for patients. “Research like this is vital to making progress against late-stage cancers and giving more patients the chance for a good outcome. The results of the Pathfinder test give us a better understanding of how often cancer is detected by this blood test in people who have not been previously diagnosed. “But we will need data from larger studies to fully evaluate this test and similar tests in progress, especially to understand whether people actually survive longer after their cancer is detected.”
