More than 20,000 NHS patients will take part in the £8.5 million STRIDE-RCT trial at around 200 GP practices in England to assess whether blood tests can detect 13 cancers earlier.
The NHS is to trial blood tests that could help doctors identify 13 different types of cancer at an earlier stage. More than 20,000 NHS patients across England will be offered the tests at around 200 GP surgeries as part of the £8.5 million Government-funded STRIDE-RCT study, led by the University of Birmingham.
Patients aged 45 and over who attend their GP with symptoms that may indicate cancer will be invited to take part. Most participants will provide one or two tubes of blood during a routine GP appointment, alongside any other tests recommended by their doctor.
The tests will look for signs of 13 cancers, including bowel, pancreatic, ovarian, stomach, liver, kidney, bladder and prostate cancer. Other cancers being investigated include those affecting the small bowel, oesophagus, bile ducts, gallbladder and lining of the womb.
Three different blood-testing technologies will be evaluated. Some detect tiny fragments of DNA released into the bloodstream by tumours, while others examine proteins associated with cancer. Artificial intelligence may also be used to help analyse the results.
A positive result would require further investigation, while a negative result would not necessarily rule out cancer. The trial will examine whether the technology can help GPs decide which patients need urgent further investigations and whether it could reduce unnecessary hospital referrals.
Professor Peter Johnson, NHS England’s national clinical director for cancer, said: "Detecting abdomen cancer early is notoriously difficult because the symptoms can easily be mistaken for other less serious conditions."
Approximately 71,000 people in England are diagnosed with pancreatic, stomach, liver, ovarian or bowel cancer each year, with nearly 35,000 deaths annually from these diseases. Around nine in ten people diagnosed with bowel cancer at stage one survive for at least five years, compared with approximately one in ten diagnosed at stage four.
The research follows an earlier NHS trial involving more than 142,000 volunteers who underwent testing using a different multi-cancer blood test called Galleri. That study did not achieve its main objective of reducing the overall number of cancers diagnosed at stages three and four.
The University of Birmingham study is scheduled to continue until October 2031. It has not yet been confirmed which GP practices in Worcestershire, Warwickshire or the wider West Midlands will participate.
Sources
This article was drafted with AI assistance and checked against the sources above. Company claims are reported as claims. Cover image is AI-generated.
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