NHS TRIALS BLOOD TESTS TO DETECT 13 CANCERS IN 20,000 PATIENTS

More than 20,000 NHS patients in England will take part in a trial of blood tests designed to detect 13 types of cancer earlier. Led by the University of Birmingham, the study — called STRIDE-RCT — is funded with £8.5 million from the Government. Around 200 GP surgeries will recruit patients aged 45 and over with symptoms that could indicate cancer. Most will provide one or two tubes of blood during a routine GP appointment.

The trial will test either three or four blood-testing technologies — among them Proteotype's Enlighten, Pinpoint AI's PinPoint, Natera's Signatera and Mercy Bioanalytics' Halo tests. Enlighten measures amino acid biomarkers in blood plasma, using artificial intelligence to assess the likelihood of breast, bowel, lung or prostate cancer. PinPoint combines 32 biomarkers into a single red, amber or green result, guiding doctors on whether further investigation is needed. Pinpoint AI says 7 per cent of people referred for urgent NHS cancer scans are diagnosed with cancer, adding: "A way to accurately triage suspected cancer patients right at the start of the pathway could be transformational to patient outcomes and capacity management in NHS services."

Officials estimate that around 71,000 people in England are diagnosed with pancreatic, stomach, liver, ovarian or bowel cancer each year, with close to 35,000 deaths from these diseases. Nine in ten people diagnosed with bowel cancer at stage one survive at least five years, compared with about one in ten diagnosed at stage four. Scientists involved have stressed the tests will not provide a definitive cancer diagnosis alone. The trial will assess how accurately each test identifies possible cancer and whether GPs can use results to decide who needs urgent investigation.