There was an article recently published on WebMD which we found interesting. It was exploring the town of Mesa, AZ, where there are higher cancer rates. The city of Mesa offers free screenings for cancer (the Galleri blood test and full body MRI) to firefighters over the age of 50 to identify indications of the disease, as firefighters have a 9% higher risk of developing cancer and a 14% greater risk of dying from cancer when compared to the average person.
They highlighted the story of a man who had a negative Galleri blood test (i.e. it stated he did not have a cancer), but the MRI showed an early Stage 1 kidney cancer. The Galleri test had missed it. They then highlighted the Arizona cancer center that performed the screenings. They have done over 2,000 first responder tests and have insights on the Galleri blood test to screen for cancer, which we agree with.
- Cancer screening is complicated. You want the test to be sensitive (if you have a cancer you actually find it), but you don’t want false positives (it says you have cancer but you don’t).
- During the main doctor’s experience, she had two false positives and found two actual cancers which were caught “remarkably early.”
- There are false negatives. There were 28 cancers which were missed. They worry that patients can have a false sense of security if they get a “negative” result.
- They estimated for those over age 50, the sensitivity was 29%. That means they miss 71% of cancers. But they found 29%. The interesting thing about Galleri is that it tests for pieces of cancers that shed into the blood for over 50 cancers. This includes cancers which can be silent (don’t have symptoms) until far into the disease, such as pancreatic cancer and others.
- If they find a cancer, you need to do a work up to find where the cancer is. You may have gotten a false positive, where it says you have cancer but you don’t.
- The Galleri test should not be used as a standalone screening. This is only one tool in cancer screening.
Our thoughts?
Biohackr Health is dedicated to bring new technologies and medical insights to you. This is cutting-age medicine. We try to be transparent in what we advocate. The Galleri blood test is exciting and has sound science behind it. We offer a cancer screening as part of our Biohackr Benchmark program, but it needs to be improved in its sensitivity and specificity.
When you get a negative Galleri test (i.e. you don’t have cancer), you need to take that with a grain of salt. You should still do all the traditional screenings: mammograms, colonoscopies, etc. If the Galleri test is positive, you need to work things up to find out where the cancer is, knowing the screeening may have given a false positive.
In this anecdotal article, there was a man who had a negative Galleri test and found a cancer on MRI. There were other patients who had a positive test on Galleri and was diagnosed with a cancer they would have never known about, but they caught it really early because of Galleri.
This is a service we bring to our clients at Biohackr Health. As technology evolves, if there are better blood screenings for cancer we will bring those to you.
