More than 20,000 patients aged 45 and over with symptoms such as pain or persistent bloating will be eligible to participate in a new NHS trial of multi-cancer blood tests. The government-funded study, known as STRIDE-RCT, will be conducted across approximately 200 GP surgeries in England to evaluate if these tests can identify several types of cancer earlier.
Led by the University of Birmingham, the trial will run from November 2026 to October 2031, according to The UK Pulse. The initiative aims to determine if the tests are accurate enough for wider NHS use.
STRIDE-RCT trial targets 13 cancer types
The blood tests work by searching for DNA fragments or proteins in the blood that may signal the presence of cancer. If biomarkers are detected, the tests may be able to pinpoint the location of the tumour within the body. Scientists will initially trial three tests, which will be used alongside a GP’s clinical judgement to assess how well they function in a real-world setting. AI will be used to analyze samples for DNA and protein biomarkers.
The cancers included in the STRIDE-RCT study are:
- Bowel and small bowel
- Stomach and oesophageal
- Pancreatic
- Liver, bile duct, and gallbladder
- Ovarian and endometrial
- Kidney
- Bladder
- Prostate
Early detection of abdominal cancers
The trial focuses heavily on hard-to-diagnose abdominal cancers, which are often identified only after they have spread. Prof Peter Johnson, NHS England’s national clinical director for cancer, noted that detecting abdomen cancer early is notoriously difficult
because symptoms can easily be mistaken for other less serious conditions. Common symptoms that may trigger investigations include pain or persistent bloating.
The stakes for earlier diagnosis are significant. In England, approximately 71,000 people are diagnosed each year with pancreatic, stomach, liver, ovarian, or bowel cancer, resulting in nearly 35,000 deaths. The Mirror reports that survival rates vary wildly by stage; for example, roughly nine in ten people diagnosed with bowel cancer at stage 1 survive at least five years, compared to about one in ten at stage 4.
Clinical and government reactions
Health Secretary Yvette Cooper said she hoped simple blood tests such as these would help identify patients needing urgent investigation much sooner, adding that earlier diagnosis can save lives. Michelle Mitchell from Cancer Research UK noted that GPs have long needed better tools to help them navigate that uncertainty by identifying which patients require further testing and this trial in England is an important step towards addressing that need,
as reported by BBC News.
Jonathan Reynolds, Secretary of State for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade, also commented on the impact of the disease, stating that cancer affects all of us at some point in our lives, and millions of people up and down the country will know how it feels to face that awful uncertainty while they wait for a diagnosis.
Context from previous multi-cancer blood test trials
The idea of a blood test that can identify multiple cancers is not new. A separate NHS trial of a test called Galleri recently failed to meet its main goal of reducing diagnoses of late-stage cancers, although researchers are still assessing its potential benefits.
The NHS-Galleri trial enrolled more than 142,000 people aged 50–77 and compared annual blood testing with standard care over three screening rounds. Overall, 71,122 and 71,128 participants were randomized to intervention and control arm, respectively. Of the randomized intervention- and control-arm participants, 64,888 (91.2%) and 65,066 (91.5%) returned for their second and 62,867 (88.4%) and 63,101 (88.7%) for their third annual blood draw, respectively.
A separate NHS trial of a test called Galleri recently failed to meet its main goal of reducing diagnoses of late-stage cancers. For secondary endpoints, the IRR for stage IV cancer after 3 screening rounds was 0.86 (0.74-1.00). Researchers continue to evaluate the potential benefits of the test. In that trial, approximately 1% of participants received a positive result, and roughly half of those were subsequently diagnosed with cancer.
In the intervention arm, 1,173/3,637 (32.3%) participants had screen-detected cancers: 937/3,637 (25.8%) following a positive MCED test result and 236/3,637 (6.5%) by NHS screening programs. In the control arm, 290/3,400 (8.5%) had cancer detected by NHS screening programs.
One MCED test analyses methylation patterns in cell-free DNA (cfDNA) to detect a cancer signal and predict the associated tissue type or organ (cancer signal origin) has demonstrated detection across a broad range of cancer types. Adverse events in the trial were systematically collected up until referral into the NHS system for diagnostic workup; thereafter, adverse events were captured only if reported directly by the participant or a clinician. As a result, this trial does not fully characterize the safety profile during diagnostic evaluation following a positive MCED test.
Patients will provide one or two tubes of blood, taken at their GP practice, alongside routine tests. Medical officials cautioned that a positive result does not automatically mean there is cancer, and a negative result is not a guaranteed all-clear.