We diagnose everyone
More than 1,000 people are diagnosed with cancer every day in the UK, and it accounts for 28% of deaths annually. Most cancers cannot be detected in time using existing screening methods, which often leads to a poor prognosis for patients.
The new Gallery test, developed by Grail, USA, works on the principle of liquid biopsy. It uses machine learning algorithms to search for methylated extracellular DNA that promotes tumor growth. When cancer is detected, the Gallery test can accurately indicate which organ is affected by the tumor.
The advantage of the new method is that it allows you to detect cancer long before the first symptoms appear, and treatment can be started earlier, which dramatically increases the chances of survival. Patients whose disease is diagnosed at the first stage usually have five to ten times more chances of survival compared to patients at the fourth stage.
During a clinical validation study in the USA, an earlier version of Galleri revealed more than 50 types of cancer with a low level of false positive results – less than 1% with a single blood sample. In a study involving 1,200 volunteers, the Gallery test determined which part of the body the cancer was located in, with 96% accuracy.
Among volunteers with pancreatic cancer – one of the most difficult diseases to treat, since it is rarely detected in the early stages – the test gave an accurate result at an early stage in 63% of cases. Today, less than one in five patients with pancreatic cancer (18%) is diagnosed with the first and second stages of the disease; three out of five cases are detected only after the appearance of metastases.
The UK's National Health Service plans to roll out the test to 165,000 patients next year over the next 12 months. Health officials believe that the Gallery test can save thousands of lives every year by detecting cancer at an early stage and significantly increasing the chances of cancer patients to recover.
As part of the pilot project of the National Health Service, 140,000 healthy people aged 50 to 79 years will take an annual blood test for three years. Any person who has a positive Gallery test result will be referred for further examination in the usual manner. Another 25,000 people with suspected cancer will be asked to be tested to speed up diagnosis. The results of the research are expected by 2023, and if successful, they will be expanded to cover about a million people by 2025.
The National Health Service has set itself an ambitious goal – to identify three quarters of cancer cases at an early stage, which the Gallery test may help to achieve.
Aminat Adzhieva, portal "Eternal Youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru based on Grail: GRAIL and UK Government to Make Galleri Multi-Cancer Early Detection Blood.