New blood test could be able to detect signs of 12 most common cancers

A new 'game changing' blood test could be introduced that would detect signs of the 12 most common cancers before symptoms develop.

Health Secretary Wes Streeting, who is a cancer survivor himself, is set to reveal the government-funded 'universal' blood screening to treat the disease in five years.

The treatment is a form of the PCR test used during the pandemic, and it could reportedly transform survival chances and save thousands of lives a year.

This comes after doctors hailed a blood test in June that predicts if breast cancer will come back years before it shows up on scans.

Mr Streeting told The Mirror: 'Just a couple of drops of blood could tell you if you had lung, breast or bladder cancer, helping end months-long waits for tests and scans. These innovations could be game changers.' 

The new tests cost £120 and it checks the 12 most common cancers – lung, breast, prostate, pancreatic, colorectal, ovarian, liver, brain, oesophageal, bladder, bone and soft tissue sarcoma, and gastric.

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The Government is said to be funding the £2.5million scheme through the National Institute for Health and Care Research.

Scientists have already set up a startup company Xgenera to help rollit out, claiming it has 'potential to save millions of lives'. 

More than 320,000 people in England — or 900 a day — are diagnosed with cancer each year, with prostate, breast, bowel and lung the most common types. 

Cancer care effectively ground to a halt for some patients in 2020 when the pandemic first reached the UK's shores, with appointments cancelled and diagnostic scans delayed because of the Government's devotion to protecting the NHS.

Experts have estimated 40,000 cancers went undiagnosed during the first year of pandemic alone.

NHS cancer services also repeatedly fail to achieve their targets.

Of the 254,594 urgent cancer referrals made by GPs in March, 77.3 per cent were diagnosed or had the disease ruled out within 28 days. The target is 75 per cent.

Fewer than two-thirds (68.7 per cent) of patients started their first cancer treatment within two months of an urgent referral.

NHS guidelines state 85 per cent of cancer patients should be treated within this timeframe.

Screening programmes are among the most effective ways to detect early stage cancers.