In this study we will assess several different multi-cancer blood tests to provide evidence on which tests could be used in the NHS to help GPs decide which patients need to urgently be sent for specialist cancer tests.

Half of patients later diagnosed with cancer attend their NHS GP with ‘non-specific’ symptoms such as stomach pain or weight loss. These symptoms can also be caused by many other conditions that are not cancer. It takes longer for patients with non-specific symptoms to be referred to a cancer specialist, and they are more likely to be diagnosed with late-stage cancer. Cancer is easier to treat if it is diagnosed at an early-stage but sending everyone for hospital tests can cause delays to making sure those who do have cancer are diagnosed and treated as soon as possible.

GPs need better tests to help them decide who to refer to the hospital for specialist cancer tests and simple blood tests called multi-cancer tests may be useful for this if they are found to accurately predict if a patient has cancer or not.

If multi-cancer tests are found to be accurate, people who do need to see a cancer specialist would have their symptoms investigated, and a diagnosis made, more quickly while people who do not need further tests to rule out cancer would not be referred to hospital needlessly.

In this study we aim to assess different multi-cancer blood tests to see if they are suitable to be used routinely in the NHS. We will assess different tests at the same time in order to get results on what tests may work more quickly.

We will recruit around 9,900 people who visit their GP with non-specific symptoms that their GP wants to investigate further. Participants will be asked to donate some blood (approx.100ml) in order to assess the accuracy of multi-cancer blood tests. We will also ask permission to follow participants medical records for up to 5 years to learn what was eventually found to be causing their symptoms. We will not be able to return the results of the multi-cancer blood tests to participants or GP’s. We will run these tests at the end of study and as we do not yet know if they are accurate or not they can’t be used to guide clinical care. 

This project has been designed with the help of members of our PPIE panel CanPopp and our Equality and Diversity Partners Centre for Research Equity and Egality. We will continue to consult PPIE and community members throughout the duration of the study and will seek their advice on the best way to disseminate results. 

The main aim of this project is to assess the diagnostic accuracy of multi-cancer blood tests.

If the multi-cancer tests under assessment are found to have an acceptable level of accuracy then they may be able to be introduced into routine practice in the NHS. This would help GP’s decide who they need to refer urgently to a cancer specialist, leading to direct patient benefit and easing the burden on overstretched cancer services as less people would be referred needlessly.