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What a multi-cancer blood test can and cannot do, the trials that will decide, and the statistics you need to judge the claims.
Early detection and screening means finding cancer before it causes symptoms, when it is most curable.
Why here The front and what screening has already achieved.
A single blood test intended to screen for dozens of cancers at once, including ones with no screening today.
Why here The technology, its promise, and its open questions.
A blood test screening for more than 50 cancers at once, before the FDA in September 2026.
Why here The test in front of the FDA in September 2026.
Positive predictive value (PPV) is the chance that a positive test result is actually right: true positives divided by all positives. Because it falls as a disease becomes rarer, even a specific screening test gives mostly false alarms when prevalence is low, which is why PPV decides whether a multi-cancer blood test is useful.
Why here The number that decides how many false alarms a positive test causes.
Stage shift means finding more cancers early and fewer late; it is the measurable goal of screening.
Why here The endpoint the NHS trial measures, and why it is not the same as saving lives.
The largest cancer screening trial ever run, testing whether a multi-cancer blood test reduces late-stage diagnoses; it reports that it did not, and its test-performance paper appeared in Nature Medicine on 22 September 2026.
Why here The largest cancer screening trial ever run.
PATHFINDER 2 is the US real-world study of the Galleri test that forms the core of its FDA submission.
Why here The US real-world study behind the FDA submission.
The first FDA-approved blood test for colorectal cancer screening (2024), now optionally reporting other cancers too.
Why here The blood test already approved for one cancer.
When a blood test says 'cancer signal, origin unclear', a FAPI PET scan may find it where FDG cannot.
Why here A proposal for what to do after a positive result.
From mammograms and colonoscopies to a single blood draw that might screen for dozens of cancers, with the FDA's first decision imminent.
Why here The path from Pap smears to a single annual draw.