Liquid biopsy test could lead to earlier diagnoses for numerous cancer types

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Routine screening is limited to only a few cancer types. New research indicates that routine liquid biopsy testing (multi-cancer early detection testing) could substantially reduce late-stage cancer diagnoses, allowing patients to receive treatment at earlier cancer stages, which are more likely to respond to interventions.

The findings are published in Cancer.

Currently, routine screening is only recommended for four types of cancer, leaving approximately 70% of new cancer cases to be detected only after symptoms appear, often at an advanced stage when survival rates are lower. Multi-cancer early detection tests offer a revolutionary approach by screening for multiple cancer types simultaneously from a single blood draw.

To evaluate the impact of one such test, Cancerguard, investigators used epidemiological data from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results database and developed a simulation model of 14 cancer types, which account for nearly 80% of cancer incidence and mortality.

The researchers simulated 10-year disease progression for 5 million US adults aged 50–84 years and assessed the effects of incorporating an annual blood-based multi-cancer early detection test into standard care.

The model estimated that over 10 years, supplemental multi-cancer early detection testing would lead to a 10% increase in stage I diagnoses, a 20% increase in stage II diagnoses, a 30% increase in stage III diagnoses, and a 45% decrease in stage IV diagnoses, relative to standard care. The largest absolute reductions in stage IV diagnoses were in lung, colorectal, and pancreatic cancers. The largest relative reductions were in cervical, liver, and colorectal cancers.

“Our analysis shows that multi-cancer blood tests could be a game changer for cancer control,” said Jagpreet Chhatwal, Ph.D., the study’s lead author and Director of the Institute for Technology Assessment at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School.

“By detecting cancers earlier—before they spread—these tests could potentially improve survival and reduce the personal and economic burden of cancer.”

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