UK to expand Galleri cancer blood tests to one million patients

That could translate to finding 5,000 potential cancer cases each year, NHS executive says

A pilot screening programme involving one million NHS patients over two years is due to begin in 2024 if early successes of the Galleri blood test continue . PA

An experimental blood test that can identify up to 50 cancers is to be introduced to more people next year, an official in the UK's National Health Service has said.

The Galleri blood test has the potential to also move blood testing from medical centres to homes.

In trials, it correctly found two of every three cancers in patients who had visited a doctor with suspected symptoms – and in 85 per cent of those positive cases it also pinpointed the original site of cancer.

The test, still a “work in progress”, finds changes in genetic code from tumours. Early identification of cancer is key to treating it.

NHS chief executive Amanda Pritchard said a pilot screening programme involving one million patients over two years is due to begin next year if early successes continue.

That could translate to finding 5,000 potential cancer cases each year, she told a conference of health leaders in Manchester.

“Our pioneering NHS Galleri trial, now in its second year, is the first step in testing a new way to identify cancers before symptoms appear.

“If provisional results prove successful, we will be rolling out the test to an extra one million people across the country from next summer, with the aim of diagnosing thousands more people with cancer at an earlier stage.

“Lives are saved when cancers are caught early and this test has the potential to transform cancer care for ever – especially for the types that often don’t show symptoms until a later stage, when they can be much harder to treat.”

Dr Thomas Round, a primary care lead at King’s College London Cancer Prevention Trials Unit, explained the potential of the test to transform testing.

“In the future, a lot of companies will be offering home blood-testing kits,” he said. “It could be in the future that people do their own testing. Think of the Covid pandemic. We were all testing at home, engaging with our health.”

The Galleri test works by looking for chemical changes in fragments of genetic code – cell-free DNA (cfDNA) – that leak from tumours into the bloodstream.

Some cancer tumours are known to shed DNA into the blood a long time before a person would start experiencing symptoms.

The test does not detect all cancers and does not replace NHS screening programmes, such as those for breast, cervical and bowel cancer.

In the US, it has been recommended for people at higher risk of cancer, including the over-50s.