The NHS is preparing to trial new blood tests designed to detect signs of 12 different cancers, in an initiative involving more than 20,000 patients across around 200 GP surgeries in England.
The government-funded study aims to improve the detection of cancers that can be difficult to diagnose at an early stage, particularly those affecting the abdomen, including pancreatic, liver and ovarian cancer.
The trial, called STRIDE-RCT, will recruit patients aged 45 and over who have symptoms such as persistent bloating or pain. It will assess whether blood-based tests can help GPs identify which patients need further investigations.
The tests look for proteins and fragments of DNA shed by tumours into the bloodstream. Researchers will examine whether these signals can indicate the presence of cancer and help identify where in the body a tumour may be located.
Patients will provide one or two tubes of blood at their GP practice, alongside routine blood tests. The samples will be analysed using tests developed by three companies, with the research evaluating how well they perform alongside clinical judgement.
The cancers covered include bowel, small bowel, stomach, oesophageal, pancreatic, liver, bile duct and gallbladder, ovarian, endometrial, kidney, bladder and prostate cancers.
The trial is being led by the University of Birmingham and funded by the government. Its findings will help determine whether the tests are accurate and useful enough to support wider NHS use.
Why is the NHS testing multi-cancer blood tests?
Abdominal cancers can be particularly difficult to identify because their early symptoms often resemble less serious conditions. Patients may experience pain, bloating or other persistent symptoms without an obvious indication of cancer.
According to the figures cited by the NHS, around 71,000 people in England are diagnosed each year with pancreatic, stomach, liver, ovarian or bowel cancer, while nearly 35,000 die from these diseases.
Earlier diagnosis can significantly improve the chances of successful treatment and survival. However, identifying which patients with vague symptoms need urgent investigation remains a challenge for primary care.
Professor Peter Johnson, NHS England's national clinical director for cancer, said detecting abdominal cancers early was "notoriously difficult" because symptoms could easily be mistaken for other conditions.
He said the trial would help establish whether blood tests could enable GPs to identify the right patients for further investigations sooner.
Health Secretary Yvette Cooper said she hoped simple blood tests could help identify patients requiring urgent support much earlier, improving the chances of successful treatment.
Michelle Mitchell, chief executive of Cancer Research UK, said GPs had long needed better tools to identify which patients with uncertain symptoms required further testing. She described the trial as an important step towards addressing that need.
Can a blood test detect multiple cancers reliably?
The STRIDE-RCT trial will assess whether the tests can provide useful information to support clinical decisions. A positive result will not automatically mean a patient has cancer, while a negative result cannot guarantee that cancer is absent.
The study comes after a separate NHS trial of the Galleri multi-cancer early detection test failed to meet its primary objective of reducing diagnoses of late-stage cancers. Researchers are continuing to assess its potential benefits.
The latest initiative is designed to evaluate different blood-based approaches and establish how effectively they can work alongside GP assessments.
The use of artificial intelligence to analyse samples is also part of the research approach described for the tests.
The findings could help establish whether multi-cancer testing has a role in identifying patients who need further investigation, particularly when symptoms do not clearly point to a specific condition.
However, the tests are not being introduced as a nationwide screening programme. Their accuracy, clinical value and potential role in the NHS will need to be established through the trial before any wider rollout is considered.
