Whereas a cancer screening requires making an individual appointment with a physician, this simple blood test can screen for 50 separate cancers and detect them at a rate well above the average for tests.

Researchers have been working on this for years. Reporting on a large study released in March 2020, WS learned that if we could achieve earlier detection for just half of cancer patients, we could save millions of lives every year worldwide

Aimed at individuals who are age 50+, the ease and thoroughness of the test process can help detect some difficult-to-diagnose cancers when they're in their early stages, such as some blood cancers, ovarian, head and neck, and pancreatic cancer.

Developed by a U.S. biotech company called Grail, the trials of around 3,000 people looked for small leaks of altered DNA that seep from tumors into the bloodstream.

The test uses machine learning, a type of artificial intelligence, to look for changes in DNA "methylation." DNA Methylation is a record of the changes—often damage—which DNA experiences over its lifetime—and is being theorized as a possible detector of cancer, but also as the truest marker of biological aging.

Some cancers, like pancreatic, were detected with 63% accuracy even at stage 1.

Critically, the most successful rates of detection were found in non-solid tumors, i.e. tumors for which there are no screening methods, like liver, pancreatic, and oesophageal cancers.

Best of all, the false-positive rate was less than .07%, compare this to 10% for mammography, and the test was able to detect the location in the body where the cancer was growing at a rate of 90%.

Another trial of the Grail test conducted by the UK's National Health Service and of 140,000 volunteers recently wound up, and those results are expected in 2023.

In a statement, the NHS cancer chief Peter Johnson said: "This latest study provides further evidence that blood tests like this could help the NHS meet its ambitious target of finding three-quarters of cancers at an early stage, when they have the highest chance of cure."

"The data is encouraging and we are working with Grail on studies to see how this test will perform in clinics across the NHS, which will be starting very soon."

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