ILMN Illumina Inc

By Jaime Llinares Taboada

The U.K.'s National Health Service on Monday launched a 'revolutionary' blood test to detect more than 50 types of cancer before symptoms appear.

The NHS said Monday that this will be the world's first trial of the Galleri cancer test, developed by Grail Inc.

The trial aims to recruit 140,000 volunteers and is being run by Cancer Research UK and King's College London Cancer Prevention Trials Unit.

The test is particularly effective at finding cancers that are typically difficult to identify early, such as head and neck, bowel, lung, pancreatic and throat cancers.

Initial results of the trial are expected by 2023 and, if successful, the NHS plans to extend the rollout to a further one million people in 2024 and 2025, it said.

"A patient whose cancer is diagnosed at the earliest stage typically has between five and 10 times the chance of surviving compared with those found at stage four," the NHS said.

Grail was acquired this year by Illumina Inc. for $7.1 billion in a deal that was challenged by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission and raised antitrust concerns in Europe.

Write to Jaime Llinares Taboada at jaime.llinares@wsj.com; @JaimeLlinaresT

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

September 13, 2021 09:31 ET (13:31 GMT)

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