While biopsies, ultrasounds, pap smears, rectal exams, and other undesirable cancer screenings have long-time been a way to detect the disease, there is now a more affordable and simple method: blood tests.
Genetic sequencing company Illumina Inc. unveiled its plan to start a new business called Grail, which will join together dozens of enterprises that will work to develop effective blood tests. Investors include Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, who helped Illumina raise more than $100 million to get Grail off its feet. Its hopes are to get the tests on the market by 2019 for $500 each.
The blood tests will search for specific fragments of DNA or RNA that have escaped from tumors and diffused throughout the circulatory system. Those roving indicators, also known as circulating tumor nucleic acids (ctNAs), are then measured using a sequencing technology.
Clinical trials are planned to begin testing ctNA detection on 300,000 people, which will then analyze rates of false positives and negative – an ever-present issuein current cancer screenings. Initially, Grail will devote its test to focusing on lung and breast cancers and then move on to other forms of the disease including kidney and ovarian.
“We've made tremendous progress, which gives us the confidence that we can get to the endpoint that we expect,” Grail’s chairman, Jay Flatley, said.
As the blood-based cancer screening market is expected to exceed over $10 billion a year, 38 biotech companies are joining Grail in working to develop effective liquid biopsies, also known as blood screens for cancer.
The Grail has begun working with the FDA to collect the necessary clinical data to prove the blood tests are effective and safe.
Source: Ars Technica
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