Developed by the California-based healthcare company Grail, the Galleri Blood Test could help save lives of thousands of people as it would allow the disease to be detected and consequently, treated, more successfully at an earlier stage. 

“Early detection — particularly for hard-to-treat conditions like ovarian and pancreatic cancer — has the potential to save many lives,” said National Health Service (NHS) chief executive Simon Stevens.

More than 1,000 people are newly diagnosed with cancer every day in the UK, he added.

The pilot program, slated to begin in mid-2021, will include 165,000 people, of which 140,000 will be aged between 50 to 79 and have no symptoms, while the remaining 25,000 participants will be people with ‘possible cancer symptoms’.

The first group will have annual blood tests over a period of three years while the second group will be offered the blood test to “speed up their diagnosis after they are referred to a hospital in the normal way.”

According to NHS England, results of the pilot are expected by 2023, after which one million people could receive the test by 2025.

In studies, the Galleri Test, on detecting cancerous cells, “localized the cancer signal with high accuracy”, allowing further diagnosis to be better informed. It aims to enable early detection of cancers that are usually difficult to diagnose through traditional screening methods, and hence treat, in their early stages.