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A single blood test intended to screen for dozens of cancers at once, including ones with no screening today.
Galleri (GRAIL) detects methylation patterns and predicts tissue of origin; PMA submitted to FDA in January 2026 with an advisory committee scheduled for 23 September 2026, based on PATHFINDER 2 and the 140,000-person NHS-Galleri trial. Exact Sciences' Cancerguard launched as an LDT; Guardant Shield adds multi-cancer results. Key open question: does earlier detection reduce mortality, and at what false-positive cost?
The first randomised evidence is in. NHS-Galleri's test-performance paper (Nature Medicine, 22 September 2026) reports positive results in 1.03, 0.80 and 0.90 percent of intervention-arm participants across three annual rounds, positive predictive values of 58.0, 50.4 and 45.8 percent, specificity of 99.50 to 99.60 percent, and episode sensitivity of 26.7 to 37.2 percent for all cancers and 47.6 to 63.4 percent for the 12 prespecified types; it states that the primary endpoint, a reduction in stage III/IV cancer incidence, was not met and is reported elsewhere.
Machine learning classifies cfDNA methylation, fragmentation, and protein biomarkers.
Nothing in the corpus depends on this yet.
Dependencies are what this technology cannot be delivered without: manufacturing steps, instruments, software, upstream methods. See its full chain on the map.
Exact Sciences' multi-cancer blood test, sold since 2025 as a lab test that has not been through FDA approval.
A blood test screening for more than 50 cancers at once, before the FDA in September 2026.
The first FDA-approved blood test for colorectal cancer screening (2024), now optionally reporting other cancers too.
The current honest statement of where early detection stands: no blood test is ready, and the research is about finding the threshold at which to operate.
For someone offered the test, these are the numbers that describe what a result means in an NHS population: about 1 in 100 tests came back positive each year, between 46 and 58 in 100 positives were cancer, and a negative result left about 1 in 100 with an undetected cancer within the year. The test found between a quarter and a third of all cancers diagnosed in a screening round, and about half to two thirds of the 12 cancer types it was designed to find. Whether finding them this way reduces late-stage diagnoses is the primary question, and this paper says only that the answer was no; the primary-endpoint paper had not appeared on Europe PMC by 23 September 2026.
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.
NHS-Galleri is the trial that will decide whether a blood test for many cancers at once should be offered by a health system. Its endpoint is a reduction in late-stage cancer rather than deaths, so even a positive result leaves the mortality question to be settled by longer follow-up.
Methylation-based screening is real but weakest exactly where pancreatic cancer needs it, at stage I, which is why high-risk surveillance rather than population screening carries the field here.
Fixes the window in which a blood test could plausibly work and shows why CA 19-9 alone is not enough: half of early cases are missed even at diagnosis, and Lewis-negative patients are missed entirely.
A blood test can find early, treatable cancers in people who feel well, including cancers for which no screening exists. It is not a replacement for mammography or colonoscopy but a possible addition. Larger randomised trials are needed to show benefit outweighs harm.
The proof of principle for multi-cancer blood tests that include pancreas; the sensitivity figures come from known cancers, not from screening.
Query for this technology: (TITLE:"multi-cancer early detection" OR ABSTRACT:"multi-cancer early detection" OR TITLE:"multicancer early detection" OR ABSTRACT:"multicancer early detection" OR TITLE:"MCED" OR ABSTRACT:"MCED"). Results are unfiltered search hits about Multi-cancer early detection (MCED), not a curated reading list.
Shares A cancer blood test for older people arriving at A&E with unexplained symptoms, Cheap DNA fragment-pattern blood test as a first sieve before expensive cancer tests, Multi-cancer blood test as the first step for patients with non-specific symptoms, Registry-based randomised MCED trial: a million people, no study visits.
Shares New-onset diabetes as a signal of pancreatic cancer (and the ENDPAC score), Combined circulating tumor DNA and protein biomarker-based liquid biopsy for the earlier detection of pancreatic cancers, Blood-based pancreatic cancer detection in new-onset diabetes, Pancreatic cancer early detection biomarkers for high-risk individuals: insights from the PRECEDE consortium.
Shares Multitarget stool DNA testing for colorectal-cancer screening, Multitarget stool RNA test (ColoSense), Exact Sciences (Abbott), Shield.
Shares Blood-based pancreatic cancer detection in new-onset diabetes, Model to Determine Risk of Pancreatic Cancer in Patients With New-Onset Diabetes, Lead-Time Trajectory of CA19-9 as an Anchor Marker for Pancreatic Cancer Early Detection, High-risk pancreatic surveillance (CAPS / PRECEDE).
Shares Multitarget stool RNA test (ColoSense), Shield, Guardant Health, Cell-free DNA (cfDNA).
Shares Freenome, Shield, Cell-free DNA (cfDNA), Screening.
Shares Multitarget stool RNA test (ColoSense), Exact Sciences (Abbott), Shield, Screening.
Shares Early detection, Serum tumour markers: proper use and misuse, Screening, Circulating tumour DNA (ctDNA).