New blood tests designed to check for several cancers in one go will be offered to NHS patients at about 200 GP surgeries in England as part of a trial, the BBC reported. The aim is to detect hard-to-diagnose abdominal cancers, including liver, ovarian, and pancreatic cancer, much sooner. Those cancers are often found only after they have spread. The tests look for proteins or fragments of DNA in the blood that may signal cancer, and the results could help doctors decide which patients with vague symptoms need further investigations. More than 20,000 patients aged 45 and over with symptoms such as pain or persistent bloating will be eligible.
The government-funded trial, led by the University of Birmingham and called STRIDE-RCT, will assess whether the tests are accurate enough for wider NHS use. A multi-cancer blood test is not a new idea. A separate NHS trial of a test called Galleri recently failed to meet its main goal of reducing diagnoses of late-stage cancers, though researchers are still assessing its potential benefits. Prof. Peter Johnson, NHS England's national clinical director for cancer, said detecting abdominal cancers early was "notoriously difficult" because symptoms can easily be mistaken for less serious conditions. Earlier diagnosis gives patients a better chance of successful treatment. Around 71,000 people in England are diagnosed each year with pancreatic, stomach, liver, ovarian, or bowel cancer, and nearly 35,000 die from these diseases.
The STRIDE-RCT trial is designed to look for cancers of the bowel, small bowel, stomach, oesophagus, pancreas, liver, bile duct and gallbladder, ovary, endometrium, kidney, bladder, and prostate. Patients will give one or two tubes of blood at their GP practice, alongside routine tests. Scientists will analyse the samples for signs of cancer and, if present, may be able to suggest where in the body a tumour is located. A positive result does not automatically mean there is cancer, and a negative result is not a guaranteed all-clear.
Health Secretary Yvette Cooper said she hoped simple blood tests could help catch these cancers earlier. The verified news is the launch of a large GP-based trial, after another multi-cancer test missed its primary goal. It is not a claim that a universal cancer blood test is now available on the NHS, or that every patient with bloating should expect a diagnosis from a single vial of blood. Officials have been careful to describe STRIDE-RCT as a study of accuracy, not a nationwide screening programme, and they have said results must be read alongside other tests and clinical judgment.