The PATHFINDER study examined if a simple blood test could detect a cancer signal in people ages 50 years and older who were not known to have cancer.
So we presented initial results of the Pathfinder Study, which was a prospective investigation of a multi cancer early detection test developed by grail and the study enrolled 6620 individuals over the age of 50 who were not known to have cancer. To evaluate the clinical feasibility of multi cancer early detection testing. And we found that the test detected a cancer signal in 1.4% of individuals screened and the cancer was confirmed or it was a true positive test, 40% of the time. In addition the time to achieve diagnostic resolution in those with a positive test was a median of 79 days. Although um the follow up testing was much shorter was shorter. For those who were true positive importantly, very few individuals with a false positive screening test required multiple invasive procedures. We also found that 99% of individuals who are cancer free at one year follow up received a negative test result. So overall we found that these tests can be safely implemented in some patient populations and they perform well in terms of test characteristics. So these data are encouraging with respect to the future uptake in clinical implementation of refined versions of these tests, which we hope will be a complement to existing screening paradigms
