Cancer-detecting blood test ‘feasible at scale’ on NHS
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An annual blood test, the Galleri test, designed to detect multiple cancers before symptoms appear, has been deemed “feasible at scale” on the NHS by experts.
The NHS-Galleri trial, involving nearly 143,000 people, aimed to assess the effectiveness of the test, which was earlier reported not to have met its primary objective of significantly reducing later-stage cancer diagnoses.
Despite this, the test, when used alongside existing NHS screening, reduced diagnoses of the most advanced cancers by over a fifth in the second and third years of screening for specific cancer types.
Overall, the trial found 14 per cent fewer cancers diagnosed at stage 4 and 19 per cent more found at stages 1, 2, and 3, with improved detection methods.
While some experts express caution regarding the interpretation of the results, others highlight the test’s potential to offer hope for deadly cancers currently lacking screening options, such as ovarian and pancreatic cancer.
