A major new NHS-backed clinical trial will investigate whether simple blood tests could help GPs identify some of the deadliest cancers earlier, potentially transforming cancer diagnosis across England.
The £8.49 million STRIDE-RCT study, funded by the Office for Life Sciences (OLS) through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), will recruit more than 20,000 patients across at least 200 GP practices. Researchers will examine whether multi-cancer detection blood tests can identify early signs of a range of abdominal cancers before patients develop severe symptoms.
Led by the University of Birmingham, the trial will focus on improving the detection of cancers that are traditionally difficult to diagnose, including bowel, stomach, pancreatic, liver and ovarian cancers.
Researchers hope the study will demonstrate how emerging technologies can support earlier intervention and improve outcomes for patients with symptoms that are often vague or easily mistaken for less serious conditions.
Professor Lucy Chappell, NIHR CEO and Department of Health and Social Care Chief Scientific Adviser, said:
"Abdominal cancers are frequently aggressive and difficult to detect. This is devastating for so many patients and their families and claiming thousands of lives every year.
"For the last 20 years, NIHR has invested in high quality research that transforms patient care. This NIHR and OLS-supported study will assess whether harnessing cutting-edge technologies and placing multi-cancer detection blood tests directly into routine GP consultations can provide earlier diagnosis for these cancers.
“This could be game-changing, with potential to streamline urgent referrals, ease NHS pressures, and deliver earlier diagnoses when treatments are most effective.”
Around 71,000 people in England are diagnosed each year with bowel, stomach, liver, pancreatic or ovarian cancer. Collectively, these cancers are responsible for nearly 35,000 deaths annually.
One of the biggest challenges clinicians face is that symptoms such as persistent bloating, abdominal discomfort and digestive issues are common across a range of non-serious conditions. As a result, many patients are diagnosed at a later stage when treatment options are more limited.
The contrast in outcomes is stark. Approximately 90% of patients diagnosed with stage 1 bowel cancer survive for at least five years, compared with around 10% of those diagnosed at stage 4.
Patients aged 45 and over who attend their GP with abdominal symptoms will be invited to participate in the study. During routine blood testing, participants will provide one or two additional tubes of blood for analysis.
The programme combines several advanced diagnostic technologies, including:
- Artificial intelligence (AI)
- Circulating tumour DNA detection
- Blood protein analysis
Together, these technologies aim to identify signs of multiple cancers from a single blood sample and indicate the most likely site of origin.
A positive test result will not constitute a cancer diagnosis. Instead, it will provide GPs with additional evidence to determine whether an urgent specialist referral is warranted.
Currently, only between 2% and 6% of urgent cancer referrals result in a confirmed cancer diagnosis. Researchers believe multi-cancer blood testing could give primary care clinicians a more objective assessment tool, helping to reduce unnecessary hospital referrals while prioritising patients at highest risk.
The study has been designed to ensure findings are representative of communities across England, with participating practices spanning inner-city locations, rural areas and coastal towns.
If successful, the findings could pave the way for a nationwide NHS rollout of multi-cancer detection blood testing, offering a significant new tool in the drive to diagnose cancer earlier and improve survival rates.
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