Excellent news as fifty cancers can be detected early

Collision, the North American tech conference started earlier today, and it’s the second year it is being run virtually. As it’s virtual it will have more attendees and two major benefits. Firstly you can dip in and out of various talks and no more long walks to the talks you want to see.

The first talk I watched was one that will interest a lot of people. The end of killer cancer?  Hans Bishop the CEO of Grail, was talking to Allison DeAngelis, the senior healthcare reporter at Business Insider. Everyone has been affected by cancer as they know someone who has cancer or they have been diagnosed with cancer.

At the moment certain cancers do not have scans/tests that can detect them early, and other cancers can be detected when it is too late for treatment. Also, it’s worth noting that during the current pandemic, cancer screenings are being cut back or not taking place.

What Hans spoke about to Allison is a game-changer that will people live longer healthier lives.  At the moment quite a few cancers are detected when they are at stage 3 or stage 4 instead of at stage 1 or stage 2. When cancer is detected at stage 1 or stage 2, the prognosis is good because it won’t have spread and treatment can begin without any issues.

Grail will be launching later this year, Galleri,  a cancer screening blood test that can detect fifty cancers. Some of these cancers can’t be detected by cancer screenings and the rest are only detected by cancer screenings that have been cut back or curtailed by the pandemic. Hans told Allison that Galleri uses AI and Machine Learning to detect fifty cancers.

Galleri does not only just detect various cancers, it can also let you know where the cancer is in your body. This is a game-changer as Galleri can detect fifty cancers and stage 3 and stage 4 diagnoses will be cut by two-thirds.

This will result in more cancers being detected earlier and the pandemic will not be a big issue. In 2021 more than 600,000 Americans will die from cancer, and anything that can greatly reduce this should be welcomed.  Galleri will be launching in America first, and then the UK this year. Hopefully, it won’t take too long to launch in Ireland.

Collision is taking place over the next two days and I am eagerly looking forward to seeing more world-class speakers and groundbreaking talks.