The Galleri test is a blood test that can detect over 50 types of cancer early by analyzing DNA methylation patterns. It's available through Function Health and could improve survival rates by catching cancer before symptoms appear.
Imagine doing one test to detect over 50 cancers. I'm going to say it again because it's that important. One test, over 50 cancers. That's why everyone in the health community is talking about this new liquid biopsy. It's real and it's really saving lives and it's a game changer. All right, so let's talk about what a liquid biopsy is. A liquid biopsy like GRAIL's Gallery Multi-Cancer Early Detection Test is a cutting-edge test that searches for cancer signals in the blood as early as stage one. Cancer is the second leading cause of death in America following heart disease. And a big reason for that is many cancers are only detectable in the late stages. In fact, the overall survival rate for cancer is four times higher when cancer is found before it spreads. And until now, many cancers are not detectable at early stages with the screening measures that we have available. This means that some of the most lethal cancers like ovarian, pancreatic cancer and melanoma are usually only detected and are diagnosed once there are already symptoms present. And by that point, it might be too late for treatment to work effectively. Understanding this is what makes an innovation like the Galleri test especially groundbreaking. Pancreatic cancer is one such cancer. It's predicted that nearly 70,000 people will be diagnosed with pancreatic cancer this year. Typically, pancreatic cancer is not detected until it has progressed to its latest stage. And at that point, those who are diagnosed have only a one-year survival rate of 5%. Ovarian cancer is another critical example. More than 75% of affected women are diagnosed at an advanced stage because there just aren't early screenings available. Both of these cancers don't show symptoms till very late and often are very vague symptoms at best. Even traditional surgical biopsies may miss cancers some of the time. Doctors need to know exactly where to extract cells from and they only know that once there are symptoms or pain that warrants a further look. Gallery, however, can screen for those cancers in their earlier stages even before symptoms occur. And rather than testing one cancer at a time, it screens for over 50 with a single blood draw. It's one of the most powerful diagnostic breakthroughs I've seen in my career as a doctor. And we are giving access to this test to every function member right now. Now the science behind it is amazing. This is how it works. The Gallery Liquid Biopsy looks for cancer sequences in the blood. Every cell in the body sheds DNA right into the bloodstream, including cancer cells. This DNA carries around a signature pattern from that cell. Certain cancers also shed the DNA into the blood and some shed the DNA earlier than others. You see, there are three hallmarks of cancer: DNA mutations, chromosome alterations, and DNA methylation patterns. Gallery looks at the last one, where changes in DNA occur during the biological process we call methylation. Every organ or cell in the body has its own unique pattern of methylation that makes it what it is. Why is a skin cell a skin cell or a brain cell a brain cell? it's because of DNA methylation patterns. So when you have cancer cells that have altered DNA methylation, you can detect those in the blood and detect where the cancer is coming from, whether it's your ovary or your pancreas or your kidney. Pretty incredible, right? Now, this Galleri liquid biopsy test doesn't screen every type of cancer. It must be shedding DNA into the blood to be detected. Brain cancer, for example, doesn't shed DNA. Melanoma, on the other hand, does. And some cancers, the more aggressive ones, shed DNA earlier than others. But the cancers that a liquid biopsy can detect are some of the most deadly ones out there, from pancreatic to breast to colon to melanoma and so many more. But what's shocking is it only takes one 15-minute lab visit and a couple of vials of blood to test them all. And what's even more impressive in the clinical studies on Gallery The false positive rate is 0.5%. That means it won't detect a cancer if it's not there. It only shows it's positive when it's not really positive less than half a percent of the time, which is very accurate. In comparison, traditional screening tests have a false positive rate of 10 to 40%. And Gallery is 89% effective in predicting where the cancer started, meaning the organ system like ovary, liver, colon, bone. So can you get this test? Yes, you absolutely can. And GRAIL has partnered with us directly to offer this very test right now through Function. And you should want to know every single year for the rest of your life. Function was built to give meaningful access to life-saving diagnostics to everyone, just like the Gallery Liquid Biopsy Test. Over 70% of cancer deaths are caused by cancers with no recommended screening. But it doesn't have to be the case. Let's improve survival rates together, one test at a time.
