A world-leading new trial is being launched across at least 200 GP practices in England aimed at providing earlier diagnosis for a range of the most common cancers.
More than 20,000 NHS patients will take part in the trial to assess whether simple blood tests can spot prostate, ovarian, bowel, pancreatic, stomach, liver and other abdominal cancers. Participating patients aged 45 and over who visit their GP with abdominal symptoms - such as persistent bloating or discomfort - will be offered the chance to take part in the trial.
The blood tests patients will receive through the trial, called STRIDE-RCT, aim to detect early markers of cancer before more severe symptoms develop. Most of the tests in the trial, developed by the University of Birmingham, will ask patients to have one or two tubes of blood taken at their GP practice, alongside routine blood tests.
The trial uses cutting-edge technologies developed by the University of Birmingham and industry partners. These include: artificial intelligence (AI); tumour DNA detection; and blood protein measurements. This will help search for signs of multiple cancers in a single sample and predict where they originated.
A positive result will help the GP and patient decide whether an urgent referral is needed but it is not by itself a confirmed cancer diagnosis. Currently, just 2% to 6% of urgent referrals for cancer result in a diagnosis. By giving GPs another tool to decide who needs further tests, the technology looks to reduce this figure and free up appointments for those with a genuinely urgent need.
Around 71,000 people are diagnosed with pancreatic, stomach, liver, ovarian or bowel cancer in England each year, and there are almost 35,000 deaths from these cancers. Abdominal cancers are often found too late. Around 90% of people diagnosed with bowel cancer at stage 1 survive at least five years, compared with around 10% at stage 4. This new trial gives the chance for clinicians to catch these conditions earlier, when treatment is more effective, potentially saving lives.
The cancers covered by the trial will include: bowel, small bowel, stomach, oesophageal, pancreatic, liver, bile duct and gallbladder, ovarian, endometrial, kidney, bladder, and prostate. The trial will assess how well the tests work alongside GPs’ judgement before an assessment is made on rolling them out nationwide.
Professor Peter Johnson, NHS National Clinical Director for Cancer and chair of the Office for Life Sciences (OLS) Cancer Healthcare Goals programme, said: “Detecting abdomen cancer early is notoriously difficult because the symptoms can easily be mistaken for other less serious conditions, but the NHS is determined to find a solution. We are at the start of revolution in cancer diagnosis, and this trial will help us to find out whether blood tests can help GPs get the right patients to the right tests sooner, supporting earlier diagnosis when treatment is most likely to be successful. It is vital that we gather the evidence about these new technologies and I am grateful to everyone taking part in this research.”
Funded by the Office for Life Sciences (OLS) through the government’s National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), the trial will receive up to £8.49 million of government funding and will cover a broad range of inner-city, rural, seaside and deprived communities.
This supports one of the main ambitions in the National Cancer Plan for England to identify cancers earlier, giving people the best chance of survival. It builds on progress already made, with 250,000 more people diagnosed on time or having cancer ruled out last year than in the year before the 2024 election.
Professor Lucy Chappell, NIHR CEO and Department of Health and Social Care Chief Scientific Adviser, commented: “Abdominal cancers are frequently aggressive and difficult to detect. This is devastating for so many patients and their families and claims thousands of lives every year. For the last 20 years, NIHR has invested in high-quality research that transforms patient care. This NIHR and OLS-supported study will assess whether harnessing cutting-edge technologies and placing multi-cancer detection blood tests directly into routine GP consultations can provide earlier diagnosis for these cancers. This could be game-changing, with potential to streamline urgent referrals, ease NHS pressures, and deliver earlier diagnoses when treatments are most effective.”