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Cancer: Government backs multiple blood tests as part of £11m early diagnosis push

BMJ 2024; 387 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.q2212 (Published 09 October 2024) Cite this as: BMJ 2024;387:q2212
  1. Elisabeth Mahase
  1. The BMJ

The UK government has announced £11m in funding for six projects aimed at increasing early cancer diagnosis, including a blood test that promises to detect 12 common cancers.

Mionco is a multi-cancer early detection (MCED) test developed by two researchers from the University of Southampton through their company Xgenera. It is designed to identify the presence and potential location of cancers (lung, breast, prostate, pancreatic, colorectal, ovarian, liver, brain, oesophageal, bladder, bone and soft tissue sarcoma, and gastric) by measuring microRNA (miRNA) expression in blood samples.

The researchers have been awarded £2.5m to trial the test through a study that will analyse 8000 samples to ensure that it is effective across a diverse cohort.

Paul Skipp, professor of proteomics and the company’s cofounder, said that the cancer screening tests currently available had a “very high false positive rate,” meaning that patients are incorrectly told that they have …

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