The Life-Saving Blood Test for Early Cancer Detection
In 2025, blood tests for early cancer detection have made remarkable progress, offering hope for earlier diagnosis and better outcomes. These new tests, often called “liquid biopsies,” are designed to find cancer before symptoms appear—sometimes years in advance.
One of the most promising is the Johns Hopkins early detection test, which uses advanced sequencing to spot tiny fragments of mutated DNA shed by tumors into the bloodstream. This test can identify cancer up to three years before symptoms develop, allowing for earlier treatment and potentially saving lives.
Stanford Medicine has introduced a different approach, analyzing messenger RNA (mRNA) in blood samples. By detecting rare gene expression patterns linked to cancer, this test can find several types of cancer, including early-stage lung cancer, and even track how well treatments are working.
The Galleri test, developed by GRAIL, is a multi-cancer early detection (MCED) blood test that screens for signals from over 50 types of cancer in a single draw. It not only indicates the presence of cancer but also points to its likely location. While still being evaluated for widespread use, it is already available in some settings as a complementary tool, especially for cancers that lack routine screening options.
Researchers at Oxford have created a liquid biopsy that finds six cancers at early stages, and the TriOx test further improves the detection of trace cancer DNA in blood, boosting the chances of catching cancer early.
Weill Cornell Medicine’s whole-genome liquid biopsy uses error-corrected sequencing to detect even the smallest amounts of circulating tumor DNA. This enables doctors to monitor cancer burden and spot relapse or progression from a simple blood sample.
These advances are moving cancer screening toward a future where a routine blood test could catch cancer early, offering new hope for patients and their families.
