Editorial: Cancer test coming

The life-saving cancer moonshot has long been considered a simple blood test able detect multiple cancers at the earliest stages when they can be most successfully fought.

There are currently about 20 multiple cancer blood tests in late stage clinical trials hoping for study results that qualify for approval from the Food and Drug Administration to put on the market.

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The most advanced of the blood tests is available now in a lab setting for $949 and there is a growing body of cancer survivors who believe the early detection provided by the test they personally paid for is why they’re alive today.

The early evidence is so good many private company health insurance programs pay for the cancer screening blood test.

The American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network Leadership Summit and Lobby Day brought survivors from around the country to Washington, on Sept. 17, including Alique Topalian of Sylvania. (“Survivor leads push for new cancer testing,” Monday)

Ms. Topalian has twice survived leukemia but her expertise as a PhD in public health and faculty position at the University of Cincinnati adds credibility to her call for Medicare funding if and when a multicancer blood test is approved.

It may seem like an easy, commonsense decision to add the cancer test to Medicare paid procedures. But until there is data that proves early detection actually saves lives, the $842 billion Medicare program will not add multicancer blood tests to the treatments it funds.

In 2023, Medicare spent nearly $16,000 per person on the 67.1 million recipients. Programs that big just do not move fast. With interest on the national debt consuming $1 trillion adding any expense faces a deservedly high bar.

When you add 78 million more people covered by Medicaid with another $616 billion in federal spending, it’s obvious that data showing early detection improves survivorship while cutting costs is the key to winning government approval.

The great hope is that test results will show success at detecting multiple types of cancer and that the early awareness leads to more survivors and less spending on heroic treatments required at later stages of the cancer.

If the data meets hopes nothing will resist the demand to make it a federally funded medical benefit, because it will be cheaper and more effective to do so. The efforts by Ms. Topalian and the Cancer Action Network have put Congress on notice that a revolutionary new tool in the fight against cancer is coming soon and Washington must be ready to act to make sure it is in widespread use.