The National Health Service (NHS) has launched the NHS-Galleri trial of a new blood test “Galleri test” that can detect several types of cancers, especially those of the head and neck, throat, bowel, lung, and pancreas, before they become symptomatic. In addition, it can detect deadly cancers and predict the location of the cancer in the body with high accuracy and has a very low false positivity rate. The chemical changes in fragments of genetic code-cell-free DNA (cfDNA) of the tumors are picked up by the test.

The randomized-controlled NHS-Galleri trial will recruit 140,000 participants, aged between 50 and 77 years, in eight areas of England. Their blood samples would be collected at baseline, at 12 months and at 2 years. Participants who have been diagnosed with cancer in the last three years will be excluded from the trial.

Detection of potential signals of cancer in the blood sample of a participant would merit referral to NHS hospital for further investigation. The participants would be required to consult their GP if they develop any new or unusual symptoms and also comply with the NHS screening schedules. Preliminary results are likely to be released by the year 2023. The trial would recruit one million more participants in 2024 and 2025, if the preliminary results are encouraging.

The Cancer Research UK and King’s College London Cancer Prevention Trials Unit have collaborated with the NHS and GRAIL, the healthcare company, which has developed this test.

(Source: NHS News & King’s College London, Sept. 13, 2021)