According to the American Cancer Society, by 2023, there will be around 609,360 deaths due to cancer. Of course, there are several things people can do to help eliminate causes of cancer, such as quitting smoking or limiting their alcohol intake to prevent liver cancer.
But some forms of cancer simply come down to genetics. For people to have a fighting chance, there needs to be preventative testing.
This includes oral cancer screenings when going to the dentist, regular cervical tests at OBGYN appointments, or regularly scheduled mammograms to detect early signs of breast cancer.
But what if there was something out there that could test for multiple types of cancers with one simple test? That’s where the Galleri Test comes into play.
The Galleri Test was released in 2021, and is now playing a critical role in cancer screenings in the United States. This test can screen a patient for up to 50 different types of cancers and pinpoint where in the body it’s located with extremely high accuracy.
How does cancer screening work and what does this mean for the future of health?
Some cancers don’t show any signs of existing in the body until they’ve reached level III or IV, at which time could be too late for the patient. But according to Emeritus Chair of the Glickman Urological Kidney Institute Eric Klein, MD, there is something better that now exists.
“Currently, we don’t detect the majority of cancers, including highly lethal ones, such as pancreatic or ovarian cancer, until symptoms are present,” Dr. Klein told The Cleveland Clinic in a recent interview, “But Galleri can find those cancers at a time when they’re in an earlier stage and before symptoms appear.”
Cancer, in the simplest of terms, is where abnormal cells uncontrollably divide and destroy your body tissue. Most often, cancer will shed its specific DNA into your bloodstream.
With one blood draw, the Galleri Test can use its DNA sequencing to test whether the various patterns of DNA contain a cancer signal, along with where in the body the cancer is most likely to start.
Throughout your DNA, different cells will produce different results. For instance, a liver cell will not appear the same way in the test as a skin cell. They have separate configurations. The same goes for cancerous cells.
A healthy cell will show up in a test one way as opposed to a healthy cell which will have a completely different configuration. Combining the two, the Galleri Test can then define the type of cancer along with its location.
“It’s like fingerprints and how fingerprints tell the difference between two people,” explains Dr. Klein in the interview. “The methylation patterns are fingerprints that are characteristic of each kind of cancer. They look one way for lung cancer and different for colon cancer.”
The test will only provide one of two results. Either there is no cancer signal which means there are no signs of cancer DNA within your bloodstream, or a cancer signal is detected.
If there is one detected within the test, there is a 90% accuracy level of determining which organ the cancer signal is coming from. This will allow you to take further tests such as a CT scan or ultrasound on that particular organ system to have more clear and definitive information about the cancer.
No test is perfect, but this one comes incredibly close in terms of progress toward cancer-fighting technology. The Galleri Test is shown to only have a 0.5% false-positive rate.
The goal of the Galleri Test is to change lives by detecting forms of cancer before physical symptoms begin. Early detection is an extraordinary way to prevent further implications of the disease and potentially save someone before it’s too late.
At this time, the Galleri Test is capable of detecting over 50 types of cancers including leukemia, oral, pancreatic, anal, breast, and several others. The current cost of the test is $949 and is not currently covered by insurance, but hopefully that changes in the future.
Story by Darren Wilson
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