England: England's National Health Service will soon have a new tool in the fight against cancer -- a simple blood test.
The NHS will begin trials of an early detection test called Galleri next year.
It could be able to spot more than 50 types of cancer.
"This is a hugely important moment in the fight to be able to detect cancers early when treatment can then make the most difference," says Sir Simon Stevens, Chief Executive, NHS
"For some cancers, such as ovarian cancer, pancreatic cancer, there isn't an early diagnostic test. And so we want to be one of the first health services in the world to see whether this simple blood test can detect those cancers when treatment will make the biggest difference."
Early detection can significantly increase the chances of survival.
For example, 90 percent percent of women with breast cancer will survive if it is diagnosed at the earliest stage, compared to 15 percent diagnosed at the most advanced stage, according to Cancer Research UK.
For lung cancer, there's an 80 percent chance of survival when diagnosed at the earliest stage, compared to 15 percent at the most advanced.
But experts say they want to know more about Galleri, which has been developed by healthcare company GRAIL Inc.
"We need to understand whether it is sensitive enough to pick up those really early cancers in people that don't have symptoms. We also need to know that it is specific enough that it's not going to give off false alarms. And so a large scale trial is necessary to look into that," says Dr David Crosby, Head of Early Detection, Cancer Research UK.
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The blood test will be piloted on a test group of around 165,000 people, 140,000 over the age of 50 without any suspicion of cancer, and 25,000 people aged 40 and above with suspicious signs or symptoms of cancer.
The trial could be expanded to one million people by 2025.
It's too late for current cancer patients - but chronic leukemia sufferer Nick York, welcomes the news.
"If a test is offered to you that could find out something, even if it's bad news, early on, then it's something that can possibly be dealt with, that might not be able to be dealt with later on," he says.
Cancer is projected to soon become the world's leading cause of death, with more than 1,000 people in the UK receiving a cancer diagnosis every day.
In the UK, more than 80 percent of all cancer deaths are from cancers which don't currently have any available recommended screening.
AP Report
