30/05/2026
Spotted a couple of health items in the news today - both from the American Society of Clinical Oncology's annual meeting in Chicago.
๐๐๐ก๐๐๐ฅ ๐ฆ๐๐ฅ๐๐๐ก๐๐ก๐ ๐ง๐ฅ๐๐๐ ๐ฅ๐๐ฆ๐จ๐๐ง๐ฆ
Galleri is a blood test invented in America that looks for cancer DNA in the blood. In the USA, it has been available to consumers since April 2021, but it hasn't been approved by the FDA. In the UK, it has only been available through a clinical trial and working in the NHS, I have seen the occasional letter saying "๐บ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ณ ๐ฑ๐ข๐ต๐ช๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ต ๐ช๐ด ๐ช๐ฏ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ต๐ณ๐ช๐ข๐ญ, ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ๐บ ๐ฉ๐ข๐ท๐ฆ ๐ข ๐ด๐ช๐จ๐ฏ๐ข๐ญ ๐ง๐ฐ๐ณ (๐ด๐ข๐บ) ๐ค๐ฐ๐ญ๐ฐ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ค๐ต๐ข๐ญ ๐ค๐ข๐ฏ๐ค๐ฆ๐ณ ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ฏ๐ฐ๐ธ ๐ธ๐ฆ'๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ง๐ฐ๐ญ๐ญ๐ฐ๐ธ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ถ๐ฑ ๐ธ๐ช๐ต๐ฉ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ช๐ด ๐ต๐ฉ๐ข๐ต ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ฐ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ณ."
It did ๐ป๐ผ๐ reduce diagnoses of stage 3 & stage 4 cancer, which is disappointing. This was the primary goal of the trial. ๐๐ฆ๐ณ๐ฉ๐ข๐ฑ๐ด, a small effect will be shown in years to come, but it's not promising. More detail can be found at
https://www.nhs-galleri.org/what-the-trial-found/did-the-test-help-find-cancer-early. Unfortunately, this result isn't surprising - it's really hard for screening tests to move the needle, so that's why we have so few screening programmes in the UK, and why at Dee GP we recommend tests judiciously, in response to specific concerns.
๐๐ฅ๐๐๐ฆ๐ง ๐๐๐ก๐๐๐ฅ ๐ง๐ฅ๐๐๐ง๐ ๐๐ก๐ง ๐ง๐ฅ๐๐๐ ๐ฅ๐๐ฆ๐จ๐๐ง๐ฆ
Positive news now - people who've had surgery for breast cancer often have chemotherapy after to reduce the chance of it coming back. OPTIMA used a gene test called Prosigna, which looks at the activity of 50 genes in the tumour and works out how likely the cancer is to return. More than 4,000 patients across six countries took part.
I'm not an oncologist, but my understanding is that previously oncologists would be having 100 conversations along the lines of "๐๐ง ๐ธ๐ฆ ๐จ๐ข๐ท๐ฆ ๐ค๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ฎ๐ฐ ๐ต๐ฐ 100 ๐ธ๐ฐ๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ฏ ๐ญ๐ช๐ฌ๐ฆ ๐บ๐ฐ๐ถ, ๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ญ๐บ 10 ๐ธ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ญ๐ฅ ๐ฃ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ฆ๐ง๐ช๐ต."
In future, they'll have ~66 conversations along the lines of "๐บ๐ฐ๐ถ ๐ธ๐ช๐ญ๐ญ ๐ฏ๐ฐ๐ต ๐ฃ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ฆ๐ง๐ช๐ต ๐ง๐ณ๐ฐ๐ฎ ๐ค๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ฎ๐ฐ" and ~34 along the lines of "๐ช๐ง ๐ธ๐ฆ ๐จ๐ช๐ท๐ฆ ๐ค๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ฎ๐ฐ ๐ต๐ฐ 34 ๐ธ๐ฐ๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ฏ ๐ญ๐ช๐ฌ๐ฆ ๐บ๐ฐ๐ถ, ๐ข ๐ธ๐ฉ๐ฐ๐ญ๐ฆ 10 ๐ฎ๐ช๐จ๐ฉ๐ต ๐ฃ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ฆ๐ง๐ช๐ต" which is much better. UCL reckon it could spare more than 5,000 NHS patients a year from chemotherapy they don't need.
I'm going to log off now, but I'm sure there'll be more big announcements and Cancer Research UK are going to cover them on https://news.cancerresearchuk.org/2026/05/29/asco-2026-updates/
