Groundbreaking new blood test that spots 50 cancers could ‘transform NHS care forever’
A HOME blood test kit that can spot 50 types of cancer may be closer with the launch of a two-year trial.
It is hoped the pioneering screening could detect 5,000 cancer cases a year.
One million people in England with no sign of the disease will be tested at mobile units starting in July next year.
If the trial proves successful, researchers say the test could be taken at home in the future.
The Sun told earlier this month how an NHS trial of 5,461 hospital patients found the test detected cancers in two-thirds of the people who had the disease.
And it gave a correct negative result for 98 per cent of those without cancer.
The Galleri test looks for tiny chunks of tumour DNA that break off and float in the blood.
One in two Brits will have cancer at some point in their life and around three million are living with the deadly disease.
Experts predict the total will rise to 3.5million by 2025 and 5.3million by 2040.
While some cancers, including breast, cervical and bowel, are screened for nationally on the NHS, most are not, meaning cases are often missed until it is too late.
NHS chief executive Amanda Pritchard said: “Lives are saved when cancers are caught early — and this test has the potential to transform cancer care forever.”
Dr Thomas Round, of King’s College London, said: “A lot of companies are offering home blood testing kits.
“So it could be in the future that people do their own testing.”