Universal cancer blood test could diagnose years before symptoms in world first
A 'world leading' universal cancer blood test is being trialled by the NHS.
The breakthrough blood test can detect the 12 most lethal and common cancers and if rolled out to screen the population could save tens of thousands of lives. A form of PCR test, a technology perfected during the Covid-19 pandemic, it can detect early signs of cancer in the bloodstream potentially years before someone has symptoms. An expanded NHS trial of 8,000 patients will now be launched with a view to possible universal population screening for cancers in future. The new trial is being announced by Health Secretary Wes Streeting on Wednesday at the opening of a new BowelBabe Laboratory, named in memory of TV presenter Dame Deborah James who died from bowel cancer at age 40 in 2022.
Mr Streeting said: 'We know that the key to surviving cancer is catching it as early as possible, so this government is taking the urgent action needed to make sure that happens through our Plan for Change, from developing world leading technology to detect bowel cancer earlier, through to setting up hubs for the UK's top scientists to research and treat the disease.
'Dame Deborah James dedicated her life to raising awareness for cancer and finding ways that we can beat it, so it is only right that we honour her legacy by investing in research to help stop one of the country's biggest killers.'
The Sunday Mirror first reported last year that the mRNA testing technology had been developed by British scientists able to check for the 12 most common and lethal types of cancer. The mIONCO-Dx blood test costs £120 and checks for cancers of the lung, breast, prostate, pancreas, colon, ovaries, liver, brain, esophagus, bladder, bone and soft tissue sarcoma, as well as gastric cancer.
Scientists at Southampton University and medical tech firm Xgenera used data on 20,000 cancer patients to develop the technology which measures the microRNA in a blood sample and uses artificial intelligence (AI) to identify if cancer is present and if so, where it is located in the body. Early trials showed it has 99% accuracy in detecting cancer at any stage and can identify where the cancer started with 99% accuracy. The mIONCO-Dx test identifies 50 cancers before getting one false positive which exceeds current best practice, researchers said.
Professor Lucy Chappell, Chief Scientific Adviser at the Department of Health and Social Care, said: 'Innovations such as the mIONCO-Dx blood test offer an exciting new era in cancer detection with the potential for quicker, easier and more effective ways to detect cancers before they become more difficult to treat.'
The government has provided £2.5 million in funding towards clinical trials and to ensure the test can be translated into a standardised technology which can be adopted across the NHS. The next stage will see the artificial intelligence which analyses the test samples perfected by entering 8,000 blood samples from people of diverse ethnic backgrounds and who live in more deprived areas of the country - to confirm it is effective in the UK population as a whole.
Currently only three types of cancer have NHS screening tests - breast, bowel, cervical and lung cancer - but involve either a scan or an invasive biopsy. They have high false positive rates where patients are incorrectly told they have cancer when they don't, which can have a devastating psychological impact.
The new BowelBabe Laboratory based in the Francis Crick Institute in London, which is funded by Cancer Research UK, will host bowel cancer research to develop new treatments. The new test could avoid the need for some invasive colonoscopies and biopsies, and so help to diagnose more patients earlier.
Professor Sir Stephen Powis, NHS England's medical director, said: 'This blood test has the potential to help us detect bowel cancer earlier and reduce the need for invasive tests, and the next step in this trial will now be vital in gathering further evidence on its effectiveness and how it could work in practice.
"Dame Deborah James was a tireless and inspirational campaigner who helped change the national conversation on bowel cancer – it's fitting that this lab in her name will drive forward research that could help thousands more people survive the disease."
Bowel cancer causes common symptoms and so is hard to diagnose. It now kills almost 17,000 Brits each year and is the second most deadly cancer in the UK. Dame Deborah - who was given the moniker 'Bowel Babe' - made it her driving mission in her final months to raise awareness of the disease.
Mr Streeting, who himself survived kidney cancer in 2021, added: 'From my own experience, I know the devastating toll cancer can take on patients and families, and how many of them have been faced with long waiting lists to get the diagnosis and treatment they deserve. And research is only one part of the work we're doing. Our National Cancer Plan will transform cancer so patients can get the latest treatments and technology, ultimately bringing this country's cancer survival rates back up to some of the best in the world.'
More than 400,000 people are diagnosed with cancer each year in the UK. On average someone in the UK is diagnosed with cancer at least every 90 seconds. The scientists behind the new test set up startup company Xgenera to roll it out. They say it 'has the potential to save millions of lives' globally. Its website continues: 'With over a quarter of all deaths in the UK being due to cancer, miONCO offers a game-changing solution to a critical global health challenge.'
By Martin Bagot, Health and Science Editor
Population screening for a host of cancers years before symptoms begin could transform survival chances.
The new test uses a panel of biomarkers and artificial intelligence to look for signs of 12 cancers from within the blood serum. A clinician will take 10 to 15 drops of blood before the serum is extracted and analysed.
This is done using a type of polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test which measures the microRNA circulating. MicroRNAs are small molecules that can be used as early biomarkers of cancers and have the advantage of having highly specific signatures to indicate the type of cancer.
Such a blood test has been considered the 'Holy Grail' for cancer researchers for years but an effective one has remained elusive. That is because the harm caused by false positives can be devastating for both mental and physical health, which are intimately linked.
Medical regulators and the NHS have rightly set a very high bar for such a test to be considered effective given the risk of such harm.
When revealing that the Government was backing the miONCO test last year, the Mirror reported that clinical trials showed that it identified 50 cancers before getting one false positive - which researchers said exceeded current best practice.
Whether that kind of success rate can be replicated in real world populations will now be put to the test by the NHS. Then regulators will consider, even if it can, whether that is good enough that the harms to some justify the benefits to many provided with earlier diagnoses.
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