Hundreds of volunteers from Southport are returning to help the NHS study a ground- breaking cancer detection test.
Hundreds of volunteers from Southport are returning to help the NHS study a ground-
breaking cancer detection test.
The participants will have blood samples taken at a mobile clinic in Southport in the coming
weeks in their second appointment for the NHS-Galleri trial.
Participants will be helping to investigate whether the multi-cancer blood screening test can
help to detect cancer early, before symptoms appear.
Since the NHS-Galleri trial was launched nationally in Cheshire and Merseyside during
September 2021, it has successfully enrolled more than 140,000 volunteers from many
different backgrounds across England, including over 22,000 from across our region.
Participants in Southport are now receiving an invitation to take part again and will have a
blood sample taken at a mobile clinic, which will be stationed at the Esplanade Park and
Ride, from 17th February to 13th March.
Dr Chris Warburton, Medical Director at Cheshire & Merseyside Cancer Alliance, said: “We
are delighted to be welcoming back volunteers from Southport for their vital second
appointment as part of the trial.
“We know from feedback that volunteers found the process of enrolling very
straightforward. We want to thank them for returning for both their second and third
appointments, which will be even shorter. It’s such a simple thing to do but could make a big
difference.”
Those taking part were aged 50 to 77 years old at the point of enrolling on to the trial and
had not been diagnosed or treated for cancer in the last three years.
Over the coming months, the study will also return to Chester, Wirral, Crewe and
Macclesfield, with volunteers contacted directly to attend their second screening.
Participants have already taken part again in other parts of Cheshire and Merseyside.
This trial continues to put the NHS at the forefront of cutting-edge research and technology.
The Galleri blood test, if successful, could play a major part in achieving the NHS Long Term
Plans ambition to catch three-quarters of cancers at an early stage, when they are generally
easier to treat.
Professor Charles Swanton, Co-Chief Investigator for the NHS-Galleri trial, said: “These next
trial appointments are really vital for helping researchers understand whether the test could be used in the future as part of the NHS cancer screening programme.
“Whilst the first year of the trial may pick up cancers that have existed for some time, the
second and third years provide the best opportunity to explore the expected benefits of
picking up new cancers at an early stage when treatment is generally more successful.”
If successful, the NHS in England plans to roll out the test to a further one million people in
2024 and 2025. In its first year, the trial has referred a small proportion of participants for
urgent NHS cancer investigations, following detection of a positive Galleri cancer signal.
Research has shown that the Galleri test could help to detect cancers that are typically
difficult to identify early – such as head and neck, bowel, lung, pancreatic, and throat
cancers.
The test works by finding chemical changes in fragments of DNA that leak from tumours into
the bloodstream.
The NHS-Galleri trial is being run by The Cancer Research UK and King’s College London
Cancer Prevention Trials Unit in partnership with the NHS and healthcare company, GRAIL,
which has developed the Galleri test.
The trial is operating with the support of eight NHS Cancer Alliances across England that
span Cheshire and Merseyside, Greater Manchester, the North East and North Cumbria,
West Midlands, East Midlands, East of England, Kent and Medway, and South East London.
After this round of second appointments, local volunteers will be asked to come back a third
time in around one year from now.