FirstHealth of the Carolinas, Inc., a private, not-for-profit health system serving patients in 15 counties in the mid-Carolinas, and GRAIL, LLC, a healthcare company whose mission is to detect cancer early when it can be cured, announced the availability of Galleri, a multi-cancer early detection (MCED) screening test to eligible patients initially through FirstHealth’s Concierge Medicine Clinic in Southern Pines.
FirstHealth will be the first health system in North Carolina to offer the Galleri MCED test to those at an elevated risk of cancer, including those aged 50 or older, as part of its comprehensive cancer screening and care. Additional primary care clinics will offer the test in the coming months.
“As a leader in cancer detection and treatment, FirstHealth is proud to support those in our community with an elevated risk of cancer with access to comprehensive cancer care,” said Dan Barnes, D.O., President of FirstHealth Physician Group. “We are committed to providing patients with groundbreaking technologies like the Galleri MCED test close to home.”
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In a clinical study, the Galleri test demonstrated the ability to detect a shared cancer signal across more than 50 types of cancer, as defined by the American Joint Committee on Cancer Staging Manual, 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 the cancer signal origin with high accuracy, enabling clinicians to focus their diagnostic evaluation.
“Our partnership with FirstHealth represents our joint commitment to bringing innovative, high-quality technologies to communities with the aim to transform cancer screening and early detection,” said Jeffrey Venstrom, MD, Chief Medical Officer at GRAIL. “By potentially identifying cancers earlier, MCED technology allows healthcare providers to provide people with the necessary diagnostic evaluations and, if needed, get them into treatment more quickly, when it is more likely to be successful.”
More than 609,000 people die from cancer each year in the U.S., according to the American Cancer Society. This is in large part because some of the deadliest cancers are found too late when outcomes are often poorer. Recommended screening tests save lives, but only cover five cancer types in the U.S.: breast, colon, cervical, prostate, and, in high-risk adults, lung. In fact, about 71% of cancer deaths are from cancers that lack recommended early detection screening.
SOURCE: Businesswire