Australians can now get a blood test that looks for signs of eight different cancers.
BCAL Diagnostics has started a phased rollout of Avantect Multi-Cancer in Sydney and Melbourne and plans to expand nationally later.
The test looks for cancer signals in the blood across lung, pancreatic, liver, ovarian, gastric, oesophageal, breast and colorectal cancers. When it finds a signal, it also points to the organ where the cancer probably started, which helps doctors decide what to investigate next.
The company describes the test as offering early, non-invasive detection "not previously available to Australians".
In a validation study run by ClearNote Health, the US company that developed the test, it picked up 56.2 per cent of cancers across all the cancers analysed. Its specificity was 98.4 per cent. The study compared people with cancer against people without it, and the results cover all cancer stages together.
Patients need a request from a GP or specialist, either through telehealth or in person. BCAL collects their blood through its clinical networks in Australia and flies it to ClearNote Health's CLIA-certified and CAP-accredited laboratory in the United States for analysis. BCAL says it is working to move testing for its Avantect range into its own commercial laboratory in Sydney.
BCAL chief executive Anne-Louise Arnett said, "The direction of cancer diagnostics is increasingly toward earlier, less-invasive detection, and blood-based testing has a role to play in that shift. We're pleased to provide Australian patients and the community with another solution to access earlier detection of cancers accessible with a request from a General Practitioner or Specialist."
"Avantect Multi-Cancer expands our commercial portfolio and provides an opportunity to leverage our existing national infrastructure to build a broader early detection business," she said.
BCAL now sells four blood tests for early cancer detection. The other three are BREASTESTplus, a test used alongside mammograms for women with dense breasts, and single cancer tests for ovarian and pancreatic cancer. BCAL holds the exclusive licence to sell ClearNote Health's Avantect tests in Australia and New Zealand.
