A recent study of a multi-cancer blood testing system developed by Thrive Earlier Detection helped identify twice as many cancers as were detected by standard screening alone, STAT News reports.

Publishing their findings in the journal Science and presenting their findings at the virtual American Association for Cancer Research meeting last week, researchers studied the blood testing system with samples from 10,006 women not previously known to have cancer.

Tests that came up positive were independently confirmed with PET-CT imaging, which also identified the location of the cancer.

The blood tests detected 26 cancers among these women. Fifteen of those cancers were then analyzed with PET-CT scans, and nine were surgically removed.

Standard-practice cancer screening detected about 25% of the cancer cases among the participants, while adding the blood tests increased the detection rate to 52%. Forty-six cancers went undetected by either the blood tests or the standard-of-care screening.

A total of 1.0% of the participants received PET-CT imaging based on false positive blood tests, and 0.22% received an unnecessary invasive diagnostic procedure.

“These data demonstrate that multi-cancer blood testing combined with PET-CT can be safely incorporated into routine clinical care, in some cases leading to surgery with intent to cure,” the study authors concluded.

To read the STAT article, click here.

To read the study abstract, click here.

To read the conference abstract, click here.