This Tuesday, Grail announced a partnership with HCA Healthcare, the largest private for-profit medical group in the United States, to further advance cancer screening and management through Galleri’s Multi-Cancer Early Detection (MCED) test.
Currently, eligible patients meeting screening criteria can obtain Galleri’s multi-cancer early detection test at HCA Healthcare physician clinics. The Galleri test, available by prescription only, is the first clinically validated MCED test, capable of detecting signals shared by over 50 different cancers with 99.5% specificity and accurately predicting the source of the cancer signal with high precision to guide further actions.
Recently, Grail published the final results of the prospective cohort study called PATHFINDER for pan-cancer early detection (MCED) in Lancet, with performance parameters consistent with those announced last year: PPV 38%, NPV 98.6%, Clinical Specificity Observation (CSO) accuracy 97%, and specificity of 99.1%. Large-scale multi-cancer early detection clinical studies like PATHFINDER2 and NHS-Galleri are also planned for the future.
As a part of this collaboration, HCA Healthcare is also participating in the PATHFINDER 2 multi-center intervention study for the Galleri test. As a component of this program, the company’s research partners, Sarah Cannon Research Institute (SCRI), and its contract research organization will conduct a retrospective study with a focus on patient and provider outcome indicators and care quality related to the MCED test.
HCA Healthcare is one of the leading healthcare service providers in the United States, established in 1968, with 182 hospitals in 20 states and the United Kingdom, along with approximately 2,300 outpatient care sites, including surgical centers, independent emergency rooms, urgent care centers, and physician clinics. HCA Healthcare leverages collaborative resources to strengthen hospitals, provide patient-centered care, and improve medical practices.
Although Grail has not yet obtained FDA approval and is not covered by U.S. health insurance, the company is pursuing a bold strategy to expand its sales channels. While various U.S. government departments are encouraging early cancer screening, they remain cautious about pan-cancer screening. Therefore, Grail needs to take an aggressive approach to broaden its market reach. For example, in August of this year, Grail partnered with nonprofit organizations like the Whitman-Walker Institute and the Cancer Support Community (CSC) to promote health equity in cancer screening by using MCED tests in different patient populations.
