UK to pilot blood test that may detect 50 types of cancer

The UK's National Health Service (NHS) is set to pilot a simple blood test that may detect more than 50 types of cancer.

The Galleri blood test has been developed by Californian healthcare company Grail.

NHS England hopes the blood test will be particularly useful in identifying types of cancer that are currently difficult to diagnose and treat early.

According to the news release, the pilot programme, due to start in mid-2021, will involve 165,000 people, including 140,000 aged from 50 to 79 who have no symptoms but will have annual blood tests over three years.

The remaining 25,000 participants will be people with possible cancer symptoms who will be offered the blood test to speed up their diagnosis after they are referred to hospital in the normal way.

Results are expected by 2023, after which it is hoped one million people could receive the test by 2025.