'Multi-cancer' blood tests coming to some GP surgeries soon

New blood tests designed to check for multiple cancers in one go will be offered to NHS patients in some 200 GP surgeries in England as part of a trial.

The aim is to detect hard-to-diagnose abdominal cancers, including liver, ovarian and pancreatic cancer, much sooner. These cancers are often found only after they have spread.

The tests look for proteins or fragments of DNA in the blood that may signal cancer. Results could help doctors decide which patients with vague symptoms need further investigations.

More than 20,000 patients aged 45 and over with symptoms such as pain or persistent bloating will be eligible to take part.

The government-funded trial, led by the University of Birmingham, will assess whether the tests are accurate enough for wider NHS use.

The idea of a blood test that can identify multiple cancers is not new.

A separate NHS trial of a test called Galleri recently failed to meet its main goal of reducing diagnoses of late-stage cancers, although researchers are still assessing its potential benefits.

Prof Peter Johnson, NHS England's national clinical director for cancer, said detecting abdomen cancer early was "notoriously difficult" because symptoms can easily be mistaken for other less serious conditions.

Earlier diagnosis gives patients a much better chance of successful treatment and survival.

Around 71,000 people in England are diagnosed each year with pancreatic, stomach, liver, ovarian or bowel cancer, and nearly 35,000 die from these diseases.

The new STRIDE-RCT trial is about detecting bowel, small bowel, stomach, oesophageal, pancreatic, liver, bile duct and gallbladder, ovarian, endometrial, kidney, bladder and prostate cancer.

Patients will provide one or two tubes of blood, taken at their GP practice, alongside routine tests.

Scientists will then analyse the samples for signs of cancer and, if present, may be able to pinpoint where in the body the tumour is located.

A positive result does not automatically mean there is cancer, and a negative result is not a guaranteed all-clear.

Health secretary Yvette Cooper said she hoped simple blood tests such as these would help identify patients needing urgent investigation much sooner.

Michelle Mitchell from Cancer Research UK said: "GPs have long needed better tools to help them navigate that uncertainty by identifying which patients require further testing and this trial in England is an important step towards addressing that need."