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Cleveland Clinic studying blood test that detects more than 50 cancers

'We haven’t had a multi-cancer detection test like this before.'

CLEVELAND — The Cleveland Clinic is taking part in a new study focused on a test with the ability to detect more than 50 cancers with a single blood draw.

Officials say the PATHFINDER study plans to enroll approximately 6,200 total participants, with Cleveland Clinic aiming to enroll patients from the Cleveland area.

“The test aims to detect cancers in earlier stages that otherwise may not be detected until symptoms appear, when the chances of survival are lower,” hospital officials said in a press release. “PATHFINDER is the first trial to study implementation of the blood test into clinical practice.”

The study is currently open to men and women ages 50 or older. You can read the eligibility requirements HERE.

“We haven’t had a multi-cancer detection test like this before,” says Eric Klein, M.D., chairman of Cleveland Clinic’s Glickman Urological & Kidney Institute and the principal investigator of Cleveland Clinic’s portion of the PATHFINDER study. “We are trying to determine if using this test will allow us to identify cancers in asymptomatic people at average or elevated risk of cancer at an earlier stage than is currently possible. Even if this test only detects a fraction of people who have early-stage cancer, it’s the first time that we will be able to detect many cancers that are currently lethal when we should be able to cure them.”

Cleveland Clinic officials also noted the test has shown the ability to detect cancer with a 0.7 percent false positive rating, “meaning that less than 1 percent of people with no cancer could be wrongly identified as having cancer.”

“According to research published in March in the Annals of Oncology, in cases where the test detected a cancer signal, it also determined which organ it arose from with 93 percent accuracy. Identifying where the cancer originated will help enable physicians to guide PATHFINDER participants with a positive test result through the next appropriate steps."

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