The NHS will offer a multi-cancer blood test to patients in some 200 GP surgeries in England as part of the STRIDE-RCT trial. More than 20,000 patients aged 45 and over with symptoms such as pain or persistent bloating will be eligible.
The trial will look for hard-to-detect abdominal cancers, including liver, ovarian and pancreatic cancer, and will test whether the blood work is accurate enough for wider NHS use. Patients will give one or two tubes of blood at their GP practice alongside routine tests.
STRIDE-RCT trial details
The government-funded study is led by the University of Birmingham. Scientists will analyse the samples for signs of cancer and may be able to pinpoint where in the body the tumour is located if cancer is present.
The tests look for proteins or fragments of DNA in the blood that may signal cancer. The cancer types named in the trial include bowel, small bowel, stomach, oesophageal, pancreatic, liver, bile duct, gallbladder, ovarian, endometrial, kidney, bladder and prostate cancer.
Prof Peter Johnson on early diagnosis
Prof Peter Johnson, NHS England's national clinical director for cancer, said detecting abdomen cancer early was “notoriously difficult” because symptoms can be mistaken for other conditions. The trial is aimed at finding those cancers much sooner, before they have spread.
Yvette Cooper said she hoped “simple blood tests such as these would help identify patients needing urgent investigation much sooner.” Michelle Mitchell said: “GPs have long needed better tools to help them navigate that uncertainty by identifying which patients require further testing and this trial in England is an important step towards addressing that need.”
Galleri and NHS use
A separate NHS trial of Galleri recently failed to meet its main goal of reducing diagnoses of late-stage cancers. That result leaves the new trial to answer a narrower question: whether this test can perform well enough in primary care to justify broader NHS use.
A positive result does not automatically mean there is cancer, and a negative result is not a guaranteed all-clear. The trial will show whether the blood test can guide GP referrals more accurately, rather than replacing further investigation.
