England’s National Health Service (NHS) will trial a new multi-cancer blood test at 200 primary care clinics. The initiative aims to detect hard-to-diagnose cancers, including liver, ovarian and pancreatic cancer, at an early stage.
The new test looks for cancer-associated proteins and DNA fragments in the blood. If the result is positive, it should also indicate the location of the tumour in the body. More than 20,000 patients aged over 45 who experience non-specific symptoms, such as pain or persistent abdominal bloating, will take part in the clinical trial (STRIDE-RCT), led by the University of Birmingham.
Early diagnosis of cancers affecting the abdominal and pelvic organs is clinically challenging because their symptoms often resemble those of less serious conditions. As a result, these cancers are frequently detected only after they have spread to other parts of the body. According to statistics, around 71,000 new cases of pancreatic, stomach, liver, ovarian and bowel cancer are diagnosed in England each year, with nearly 35,000 resulting in death.
Researchers emphasise that a positive test result does not automatically mean a person has cancer, just as a negative result cannot guarantee that they are completely healthy. The test is primarily intended to help GPs identify patients who need urgent and more detailed investigations.
It is worth noting that the NHS previously tested a similar technology, known as Galleri. However, the trial failed to achieve its primary goal of reducing the number of diagnoses of advanced-stage cancer. The current STRIDE-RCT study will focus on more than 10 types of cancer, including bladder, prostate, kidney and endometrial cancer, and will assess how accurate the test is and whether it is suitable for wider implementation across the NHS.
