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Results presented at the ESMO cancer conference in October 2025 showed that a single blood test screening for roughly 50 cancer types increased overall cancer detection seven-fold when added to standard screenings like mammograms and colonoscopies.

What does this blood test actually detect in the bloodstream?

Fragments of DNA shed by tumor cells
GRAIL's Galleri test, studied in the 35,878-person PATHFINDER 2 trial, analyzes cell-free DNA fragments and their chemical methylation patterns in blood plasma to flag a possible cancer signal and predict its likely tissue of origin, and fewer than 1 in 200 people who take the test get a false positive, according to the trial's safety data.

Fragments of DNA shed by tumor cells is correct — the test analyzes cell-free DNA circulating in blood plasma, looking at chemical methylation patterns on those DNA fragments to flag a possible cancer signal and even predict which tissue it likely came from.

The test doesn't work by measuring antibodies the immune system makes against tumors, nor by counting elevated white blood cells — both would be far less specific signals, since white blood cell counts rise for many reasons besides cancer, and reliable tumor-specific antibody tests aren't the basis of this technology.

In the large PATHFINDER 2 trial, adding this single blood test to standard screenings like mammograms and colonoscopies multiplied overall cancer detection roughly sevenfold, while keeping false positives quite rare — a sign of how multi-cancer blood tests could reshape early screening in the years ahead.

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