Chamber and committees

Cancer Research UK submission of 5 October 2021

PE1863/B: Mandatory annual cancer blood test from the age of 55

Thank you for giving Cancer Research UK (CRUK) the opportunity to respond to the above public petition.

There has been a lot of research interest in the development of blood tests (and other tests such as urine and breath tests) that could aid the detection, surveillance or ongoing monitoring of cancer. Unfortunately, at the moment there aren’t any blood tests that can reliably detect the early signs of cancer in people without symptoms. 

A lot more research is needed before a general cancer blood test could be used in cancer screening. In England, a large screening research trial involving one blood test – GRAIL’s Galleri test – has recently begun and will be aiming to recruit 140,000 participants over the coming months. This trial is crucial for answering key questions about whether the test can find cancer, whether it can find it at an earlier stage, and whether it can do that without causing undue or unreasonable levels of harm. Answers to these questions are needed before it can be decided if this test should be available on the NHS in all UK nations. 

The following links to our website provide further details on the Galleri trial:

CRUK public information on the Galleri blood test trial: https://www.cancerresearchuk.org/about-cancer/cancer-in-general/tests/blood-tests/Galleri-blood-test

CRUK clinical trials database summary page on Galleri: https://www.cancerresearchuk.org/about-cancer/find-a-clinical-trial/a-trial-looking-at-a-new-blood-test-to-screen-for-cancer-nhs-galleri-trial#undefined  

A recent CRUK blog on the trial https://news.cancerresearchuk.org/2021/09/13/the-galleri-multi-cancer-blood-test-what-you-need-to-know/  

Mr Campbell is right to emphasise the importance of cancer screening, which can help spot certain cancers – breast, bowel, and cervical screening are currently the only cancer screening programmes recommended by the UK National Screening Committee – at an early stage when treatment is more likely to be successful. Regrettably we cannot endorse his petition, but we hope that it will not be too much longer before a general cancer blood test suitable for use in cancer screening becomes available.