Date Posted
NCI researchers have published a review in CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicans that outlines what is known and unknown about multi-cancer detection assay technologies. “MCD tests can potentially be used to improve early cancer detection, including cancers that currently lack effective screening methods,” the authors write. “However, these tests have unknown and unquantified benefits and harms.”
Prospective clinical trials are needed to address uncertainties about MCD accuracy to detect different cancers in asymptomatic individuals, whether these tests can detect cancer sufficiently early for effective treatment and mortality reduction, the degree to which these tests may contribute to cancer overdiagnosis and overtreatment, whether MCD tests work equally well across all populations, and the appropriate diagnostic evaluation and follow-up for patients with a positive test.