GRAIL, UK Govt to Make Galleri Multi-Cancer Early Detection Blood Test Available

 

• GRAIL and NHS Partner to Transform Cancer Outcomes in First-of-Kind Program
• Agreement Aims to Help UK Meet its Goal of Diagnosing Three-Quarters of All Cancers at an Early Stage by 2028

GRAIL, Inc., a healthcare company whose mission is to detect cancer early, when it can be cured, today announced a partnership with the United Kingdom’s (UK) National Health Service (NHS) to help transform cancer outcomes by making GRAIL’s multi-cancer early detection blood test, Galleri™, available to UK patients starting in 2021.

The commercial partnership program aims to confirm Galleri's clinical and economic performance in the NHS system as a precursor to its routine use by the NHS.

The partnership program will involve approximately 165,000 people in the UK and includes two groups. The first will include 140,000 people over the age of 50 without any suspicion of cancer, and the second will include 25,000 people aged 40 and above with suspicious signs or symptoms of cancer. Based on data from this program, access to the test could be expanded to around one million people across 2024 and 2025 and may roll out to a larger population thereafter.

In a clinical validation study in the U.S., an earlier version of Galleri detected over 50 types of cancer with a low false positive rate of less than 1% through a single blood draw. Modeling data show that adding Galleri to existing standard of care has the potential to decrease the number of cancers diagnosed at late stage by nearly half, which could reduce the total number of cancer deaths in the UK by approximately one-fifth.

“Every year, nearly 200,000 people in the UK die from cancer. Many of these people are diagnosed too late for treatment to be effective,” said Lord David Prior, Chair of NHS England. “This collaboration between the NHS and GRAIL offers the chance for a wide range of cancers to be diagnosed much earlier and could fundamentally change the outlook for people with cancer.”

“We are building a world-leading diagnostics industry in the UK -- not just for coronavirus, but for other diseases too,” said Matt Hancock, Health and Social Care Secretary. “This exciting and ground-breaking new blood test from GRAIL will give us another tool to give more people the very best chance of survival, demonstrating how the UK continues to lead the way in using the latest innovative treatments to help patients. Many of us know a loved one who has battled against cancer and have seen first-hand the impact of this deadly disease."

Cancer is projected to soon become the world’s leading cause of death, with more than 1,000 people in the UK receiving a cancer diagnosis every day. The majority of cancers are found too late when outcomes are often fatal, because most deadly cancers have no available screening tests. In the UK, more than 80% of all cancer deaths are from cancers which don’t currently have any available recommended screening.

https://www.biospace.com/article/releases/grail-and-uk-government-to-make-galleri-multi-cancer-early-detection-blood-test-available-to-patients/