Cancer affects everyone. Either you’ve personally battled it, know someone who has, or have lost a loved one to this disease.
Last year alone, almost 2 million people were told they had cancer. Almost 610,000 people succumbed to it.
Mammograms, colonoscopies, pap smears, CT scans, millions of people are screened for cancer each year.
Early detection is key to survival, but still, 70% of cancers didn’t have screening tests -- until now.
What’s being considered the “holy grail” of cancer screening could diagnose some cancers earlier than ever before.
“It’s a novel technology that enables one to potentially screen an individual’s blood for up to 50 different types of cancer,” said Dr. Elizabeth O’Donnell, director of Early Detection and Prevention at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.
The Grail Galleri test is one of the first blood tests that looks for fragments of DNA circulating in the bloodstream and scans for markers that might have come from a tumor cell.
“It uses your blood to look for signatures that may be indicative of a cancer,” said O’Donnell.
By using two test tubes of a patient’s blood, O’Donnell can see if cancer signals are present. A positive test means a signal that is associated with cancer has been found, but it does not mean you have cancer, and patients should be further evaluated.
“The intent of all of these liquid biopsies is really to try and find these earlier stage, so Stage 1 and Stage 2 cancers,” explained O’Donnell.
This will lead to catching cancers early, so treatment can start sooner, and more lives can be saved.
The multi-cancer early detection or MCED test made by Grail is the first MCED test to be laboratory-approved. The test is intended for people who are older than 50. It is not recommended for people under age 21.
The test is not yet approved by the FDA and is not yet covered by health insurance. It’s available by prescription only and costs about $1,000.