Editorial: Liquid cancer biopsy: the future of cancer detection? (Grail)

Editorial: The Lancet Oncology

This year's JP Morgan Annual Healthcare Conference (Jan 11–15, 2016) in San Francisco, CA, USA, saw the announcement of a new biotechnology company called Grail—a spinoff from Illumina (San Diego, CA, USA; one of the world's largest diagnostics companies). Chaired by the Illumina Chief Executive Officer Jay Flatley, and with a science advisory board headed by José Baselga (Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY, USA), Grail declared its mission to be “the early detection of cancer in asymptomatic individuals through a blood screen”. Flatley's aim is to deliver this ambitious pan-tumour test in just 3 years. The notion of cancer detection by liquid biopsy is not a new concept: indeed, many other companies are also developing blood-based tests to monitor cancer progression or screen high-risk asymptomatic individuals. However, such tests to date have focused on specific cancer types, rather than a single test to detect all aysmptomatic cancers based on circulating tumour DNA (ctDNA). Is this objective possible? And what are the wider implications for patients with cancer?....

  Grail's endeavour, however, is laudable in its ambitious scope, and it will be fascinating to watch over the coming years whether the company achieves its objective.