NEW YORK – Grail on Tuesday announced that it has entered a collaboration with the US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Veterans Health Administration and the Veterans Health Foundation to evaluate the real-world performance of the Galleri multi-cancer early detection blood test.
The company will provide Galleri to 10,000 veterans across approximately 10 participating sites, beginning with the VA Pittsburgh Healthcare System, over the next three years. Participating veterans will be eligible to enroll in REFLECTION, Grail's observational, multi-center study to evaluate the test's performance when combined with recommended cancer screenings in clinical settings. The study ultimately seeks 35,000 healthy volunteers.
"Cancer is a significant issue for US veterans, many of whom are at high risk," Charles Atwood, the study's lead researcher at VA Pittsburgh, said in a statement. "Grail’s multi-cancer early detection test will be provided to veterans, in addition to current recommended screenings, with the aim of improving early diagnoses and outcomes."
In a clinical study, Galleri showed the potential to detect more than 50 types of cancer, with a false positive rate of under 1 percent. The assay can determine a cancer's origin in a large proportion of cases.
Grail launched Galleri last year and is fielding it in several pilot programs, including one with Salt Lake City-based Intermountain Healthcare and another with Point32Health, among others.