A little bit of blood. A short wait. A test for more than 50 different cancers.<\/p>\n
\n Loading audio narration…\n <\/p>\n
Grail’s Galleri test<\/a> sounds too good to be true. And with cancer on the rise among young people<\/a>, a simple, noninvasive test done at home sounds like a breakthrough.<\/p>\n Or is it?<\/p>\n BI’s health correspondent Hilary Brueck decided to see for herself and took the test<\/a>.<\/p>\n What she found sits in a gray area. The test has had some success with early detection, but it’s far from perfect. Grail’s own laboratory study from 2021 said the Galleri test caught cancer just 51.5% of the time.<\/p>\n Hilary noted that the test doesn’t include much context or follow-up analysis. Her results were simply, “no cancer detected.”<\/p>\n It’s also not cheap. With a listed price of $950, it’s not something the average American can spring for. Especially when it’s essentially a coin flip whether it detects cancer at all.<\/p>\n Even Grail’s first CEO, Jeff Huber, sees that as a problem.<\/p>\n “I do feel deeply offended by the current state of things where Grail is a rich people product,” he told Hilary.<\/p>\n The Galleri test highlights the tension at the heart of new medical technology.<\/p>\n Dismissing imperfect tests feels too extreme. In a world where doctors are coming up empty on the mysterious rise of colon cancer<\/a>, anything to help with early detection is a good thing.<\/p>\n And the more chances companies like Grail have to fine-tune the process, the closer we could get to perfection.<\/p>\n Investors don’t always have that kind of patience. Earlier this year, Grail announced its biggest trial yet had failed to meet its primary goal of reducing late-stage cancer diagnoses. Shortly after the news broke, its share price dropped 50%.<\/p>\n