New breakthrough blood test, also piloted by NHS, can "accurately" detect cancer

SCIENTISTS are set to roll out a breakthrough blood test that can accurately detect 50 types of cancer, even before  any clinical signs or symptoms of the disease start to appear in the body.

Also piloted by NHS England, the test is aimed at people at higher risk of the disease, including patients aged 50 years or older. 

Scientists have claimed that the test accurately detects cancer often before any signs or symptoms appear, while having a very low false positive rate.

Developed by US-based company Grail, the test  looks for chemical changes in fragments of genetic code – cell-free DNA (cfDNA) – that leak from tumours into the bloodstream. The test is said to have a high level of accuracy. 

Scientists analysed the performance of the test in 2,823 people with the disease and 1,254 people. The test was able to correctly identify cancer in 51.5 per cent of the cases, across all stages of the disease, and wrongly detected cancer in only 0.5 per cent of cases, The Guardian reported.

Also, in 88.7 per cent cases, the test was able to correctly identify the tissue in which the cancer was located in the body.

For some of the most common tumour types such as bowel or lung cancer, the test even picked up cancers that were very small, at a stage where many of them could potentially be cured.

Meanwhile, the results of the NHS pilot of the test, which will include 140,000 participants, are expected by 2023.

National NHS clinical director for cancer Prof Peter Johnson said: “This latest study provides further evidence that blood tests like this could help the NHS meet its ambitious target of finding three-quarters of cancers at an early stage, when they have the highest chance of cure.

“The data is encouraging and we are working with Grail on studies to see how this test will perform in clinics across the NHS, which will be starting very soon.”