Feasibility of blood testing combined with PET-CT to screen for cancer and guide intervention

Cancer treatments are often more successful when the disease is detected early. We evaluated the feasibility and safety of multicancer blood testing coupled with positron emission tomography-computed tomography (PET-CT) imaging to detect cancer in a prospective, interventional study of 10,006 women not previously known to have cancer. Positive blood tests were independently confirmed by a diagnostic PET-CT, which also localized the cancer. Twenty-six cancers were detected by blood testing. Of these, 15 underwent PET-CT imaging and nine (60%) were surgically excised. Twenty-four additional cancers were detected by standard-of-care screening and 46 by neither approach. One percent of participants underwent…

• BW
  Burroughs Wellcome Fund
• JT
  John Templeton Foundation
• LF
  Lustgarten Foundation
• VA
  Virginia and D.K. Ludwig Fund for Cancer Research
• BA
  Billi and Bernie Marcus Foundation
• NI
  National Institutes of Health

  Awards: T32-GM007309, #U01 CA230691, #CA6973, #P50 CA62924, R44CA203350, HHSN261201600034C, #U01 CA152753, R37CA230400