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A positive blood test with no known tumour is frightening and hard to manage. A standard imaging cascade with a time limit, and a registry of what was found, would make these tests usable.
PATHFINDER showed diagnostic resolution sometimes took months and repeated procedures. Propose a protocolised pathway: tissue-of-origin-directed imaging first, PET-CT second, FAPI PET or whole-body MRI third, explicit stopping rules for unresolved positives (repeat test at six months), and a mandatory registry of investigations, complications, and outcomes per positive.
A multi-cancer blood test can be run in ordinary clinics, and most positive results can be resolved with imaging. But six in ten positives are false alarms that take months to resolve, and the test misses most cancers. Whether it reduces late-stage cancer or deaths is unknown; that requires randomised trials.
One bottleneck page and 32 idea pages on OnCo cite this paper by its DOI; this record gives the citation a page of its own so a reader can follow it without leaving OnCo. Read the abstract above alongside the citing pages listed under Related; the record was created automatically from the Europe PMC entry and its figures have not been checked by hand.
Shares FAPI PET as the workup for MCED positives, Whole-body MRI, Early detection of cancer, Positive predictive value (PPV).
Shares Early detection of cancer, Positive predictive value (PPV), Multi-cancer early detection (MCED), The hardest cancers are found late.
Shares Early detection of cancer, Positive predictive value (PPV), Overdiagnosis and false alarms, The hardest cancers are found late.
Shares Early detection of cancer, Positive predictive value (PPV), The hardest cancers are found late.
Shares PATHFINDER: the first prospective test of a multi-cancer blood test in people without symptoms, Positive predictive value (PPV), Multi-cancer early detection (MCED), Overdiagnosis and false alarms.
Shares Early detection of cancer, Multi-cancer early detection (MCED), The hardest cancers are found late.
Shares PATHFINDER: the first prospective test of a multi-cancer blood test in people without symptoms, Multi-cancer early detection (MCED), Overdiagnosis and false alarms.
Shares PATHFINDER: the first prospective test of a multi-cancer blood test in people without symptoms, Multi-cancer early detection (MCED), ctDNA tests roadmap: from a curiosity in plasma to blood tests that decide treatment.