The medical sector is preparing for a new era of cancer screening after a study found that a simple blood test can detect multiple types of malignant disease in patients before they show obvious symptoms and even predict its location.
The research study, prepared by the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in Britain, was conducted on more than 6,600 adults aged 50 and over, according to a report by the British newspaper, The Guardian.
Dozens of new cases of the disease were discovered, many of the cancers were at an early stage and nearly three-quarters of them were forms not routinely screened for.
Changing the rules of the game
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 for further research and any necessary treatment.
For its part, the National Health Service in Britain described the new test as a “game changer”, which is due to announce the results of a large trial involving 165,000 people next year.
Doctors hope the test will save lives by detecting cancer early enough to make surgery and treatment more effective, but the technology is still being developed.
Discover 92 cases
“I think what’s exciting about this new model and concept is that many of these cancers we don’t have any standard screening for,” said Dr. Deep Schrag, lead researcher on the study.
In the study, 6,621 adults aged 50 or older were given a Galleri blood test.
For 6,529 volunteers, the test was negative, but it detected possible cancer in 92, according to the Guardian.
Additional tests confirmed solid tumors or leukemia in 35 people, or 1.4% of the study group.
The test detected two types of cancer in a woman with breast and endometrial tumors.
Predicts the location of cancer
In addition to detecting the presence of disease, the test predicts the location of the cancer, allowing doctors to track the follow-up work needed to locate and confirm the cancer.
In this context, Schrag said, “The indication of origin was very useful in guiding the type of additional work.”
“When the blood test result is positive, it usually takes less than three months to complete the surgeries,” he added.
In addition, the test identified 19 solid tumors in tissues such as the breast, liver, lung and colon, but it also detected ovarian and pancreatic cancers, which are usually detected at a late stage and have poor survival rates.
The rest of the cases were leukemias, and of the 36 cancers detected in total, 14 were at an early stage and 26 types of the disease were not routinely examined.
Further analyzes found that the blood test was negative for 99.1% of those without cancer, meaning only a small percentage of healthy people received a false positive result.
Also, about 38% of those who tested positive had cancer.