Blood Test Helps Mother of Three Detect Cancer Early
(BPT) - Patty - a tennis enthusiast and mother of three - has always taken her health seriously.
"I'm very proactive about getting mammograms and colonoscopies," she said. So, when Patty learned about the Galleri® test, a blood test that can detect a signal for over 50 cancer types - including those that don't have routine screenings1,2 - she thought, "What the heck, I'll give it a whirl."
Cancer can stay hidden in the body for months or years, but many cancers leave clues in the blood - in the form of DNA released by the cancer cells - long before they cause symptoms.3,4 When Galleri detects a cancer signal, it provides a predicted origin in the body with high accuracy to help guide an efficient diagnostic work-up.3,4,5The Galleri test does not predict future cancer risk.
For Patty, the test came in the nick of time.
"There was a signal detected from the Galleri test - it was a lymphoma lineage," she recalled. "I was diagnosed with a rare form of non-Hodgkin large B-cell lymphoma."*
A Proactive Approach
Patty's decision to test for cancers did not occur in a vacuum. Her employer, Seyfarth Shaw, had been looking for ways to encourage workers to be more proactive with their health.
Encouraging employees to take health precautions was in keeping with a culture that Patty appreciated even before her diagnosis.
"The people here are genuine; everyone pitches in, which is phenomenal," she said.
Mark Coffin, a partner and former chair of the Benefits Committee at the firm, said the team was prioritizing tools that would enable employees to more effectively manage their health.
"We eventually came across GRAIL and the Galleri test, and it was just the kind of thing we were hoping we'd find," he said.
The Benefits of Early Diagnosis
Though Patty caught her cancer early, she was still facing an aggressive form of cancer. By the time she had her PET-CT scan, about a month after diagnosis, the tumor had grown in size and had affected additional lymph nodes.
"I learned that the earlier anything can be detected, especially if you have no symptoms, the better the treatment options are," Patty said.
The standard treatment for Patty's type of lymphoma was six rounds of chemotherapy.
"After the third cycle, I had another PET scan done and the mass was gone. It was completely obliterated," she said. Since completing all rounds of chemotherapy, three additional scans have come back clean.
Patty was not alone in her gratitude for catching the cancer early.
"It's wonderful to be reminded that if you do things for the right reasons and you care about your colleagues and teammates, that can come back in unexpected ways," Coffin said.
* The overall sensitivity in study participants with lymphoma was 56.3% (27.3% for stage I, 58.3% stage II, 71.7% stage III, 60.9% stage IV).
Learn More
The Galleri test must be prescribed by a healthcare provider and should be used in addition to recommended cancer screenings such as mammography, colonoscopy, prostate specific antigen (PSA) test and/or cervical cancer screening. It is intended for use in adults with an elevated risk for cancer, such as those aged 50 or older.
The Galleri test does not detect a signal for all cancers, and not all cancers can be detected in the blood. False-positive and false-negative results do occur.
The overall sensitivity in study participants with lymphoma was 56.3% (27.3% for stage I, 58.3% stage II, 71.7% stage III, 60.9% stage IV).
Learn more at Galleri.com.
Important Safety Information
The Galleri test is recommended for use in adults with an elevated risk for cancer, such as those aged 50 or older. The Galleri test does not detect all cancers and should be used in addition to routine cancer screening tests recommended by a healthcare provider. Galleri is intended to detect cancer signals and predict where in the body the cancer signal is located. Use of Galleri is not recommended in individuals who are pregnant, 21 years old or younger, or undergoing active cancer treatment.
Results should be interpreted by a healthcare provider in the context of medical history, clinical signs and symptoms. A test result of "Cancer Signal Not Detected" does not rule out cancer. A test result of "Cancer Signal Detected" requires confirmatory diagnostic evaluation by medically established procedures (e.g. imaging) to confirm cancer. Results should be interpreted by a healthcare provider in the context of medical history, clinical signs and symptoms.
If cancer is not confirmed with further testing, it could mean that cancer is not present or testing was insufficient to detect cancer, including due to the cancer being located in a different part of the body. False-positive (a cancer signal detected when cancer is not present) and false-negative (a cancer signal not detected when cancer is present) test results do occur. Rx only.
Laboratory/Test Information
GRAIL's clinical laboratory is certified under the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments of 1988 (CLIA) and accredited by the College of American Pathologists. The Galleri test was developed, and its performance characteristics were determined, by GRAIL. The Galleri test has not been cleared or approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. GRAIL's clinical laboratory is regulated under CLIA to perform high complexity testing. The Galleri test is intended for clinical purposes.
- Klein EA, Richards D, Cohn A, et al. Clinical validation of a targeted methylation-based multi-cancer early detection test using an independent validation set. Ann Oncol. 2021. Sep;32(9):1167-77. doi: 10.1016/j.annonc.2021.05.806
- Preventive Services Task Force. A, B, and C grade recommendations, cancer, screening [cited 2025 Mar 18].
- Schrag D, Beer TM, McDonnell CH, et al. Blood-based tests for multi-cancer early detection (PATHFINDER): a prospective cohort study. Lancet. 2023;402:1251-1260. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(23)01700-2.
- Hackshaw A, et al. Cancer Cell. 2022;40(2):109-13.
- GRAIL, Inc. Enhanced Cancer Signal Origin prediction. [Data on file: VV-TMF-59592].
Source: BrandPoint
