GRAIL is a healthcare company whose mission is to detect cancer early, when it can be cured
GRAIL, AccessHope collaborate for Galleri blood test. (Credit: Belova59 from Pixabay.)
GRAIL, Inc., a healthcare company whose mission is to detect cancer early, announced today it is joining forces with AccessHope™ to offer a world-class service experience to people who use Galleri™, GRAIL’s first-of-kind multi-cancer early detection blood test. This collaboration is part of GRAIL’s effort to help patients and their healthcare providers achieve favorable outcomes by making the test experience, from blood draw to cancer care, as seamless as possible.
AccessHope, a company that provides cancer expertise to employers and their healthcare partners, will offer Galleri users coordination services during the test experience, including access to a support team for guidance and information. AccessHope also will provide support to physicians as they determine next steps to evaluate a positive Galleri test result.
“Most cancers are diagnosed too late, when outcomes are poor,” said Dr. Joshua Ofman, chief medical officer and head of external affairs at GRAIL. “The introduction of Galleri as a complement to recommended cancer screening tests provides an opportunity to fundamentally change the way that we detect cancer. Best-in-class expert services like those offered by AccessHope will be an essential part of GRAIL supporting providers and their patients from test to diagnosis to treatment.”
GRAIL previously announced it will introduce Galleri in the second quarter of 2021. An earlier version of Galleri demonstrated the ability to detect more than 50 types of cancers — over 45 of which lack recommended screening tests today — with a low false positive rate of less than 1%. When a cancer signal is detected, Galleri can determine where in the body the cancer is located with high accuracy, all from a single blood draw. This is critical to help guide diagnostic follow-up and care.
“The rising cost of cancer care — coupled with the extraordinary rate of innovation and changes in best practices — make early detection even more vital when it comes to improving a patient’s healthcare experience, outcomes, value, and care,” said Mark Stadler, CEO of AccessHope. “Our mission at AccessHope is to deploy the latest cancer care knowledge to the places and people who need it most when it is most valuable. Providing support services for Galleri offers another way we can touch more lives and extend our mission.”
Galleri, which will require a prescription, will be available initially through partner health systems, medical practices, and self-insured employers.
Cancer is projected to become the world’s leading cause of death in 2021. In the U.S., more than 600,000 people died from cancer last year. This is in large part because the majority of cancers are found too late when outcomes are often fatal. Recommended screening tests in the U.S. save lives, but they only cover five cancers and screen for a single cancer at a time. In fact, cancers responsible for 71% of cancer deaths have no recommended early detection screening at all.
Source: Company Press Release