The tests sold in the US today, side by side, with a source next to every value.
This page is for informational purposes only and is not medical advice. Every value below is reproduced from a company page or a published study, linked next to it, without interpretation, and none of it is a recommendation. If you are considering one of these tests, please discuss it with your own clinician.
Three multi-cancer early detection tests can be ordered in the United States today: Galleri, Cancerguard, and Caris Detect. The table below puts what each company and each published study has reported side by side, with a link to the source next to every value. "Not reported" means I could not find the value on any company or study page.
Last checked September 6, 2026.
* Not yet available in the US.
Galleri GRAIL, Inc. | Cancerguard Exact Sciences (Abbott) | Caris Detect Caris Life Sciences | Shield MCD* Guardant Health | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| What it looks for How many cancers the company says the test can pick up, who it is meant for, and which cancers it is weak on. | ||||
| Cancer types claimed by the company | Signal shared by more than 50 types of cancer [1] | Signals associated with 50+ cancer types and subtypes [2] | Signals from 55+ types of cancer [3] | 10 cancers: bladder, breast, colorectal, esophageal, gastric, liver, lung, ovarian, pancreatic, prostate [4] |
| Intended population, as stated by the company | Recommended for adults with an elevated risk for cancer, such as those aged 50 or older [5] | Adults ages 50-84 with no known cancer diagnosis in the preceding 3 years [6] | Adults 21 and older [7] | Adults 45 and older at average risk [8] |
| Cancers with low sensitivity, as stated by the company | Low sensitivity for cancers that shed little DNA, for example brain, skin, and early breast and prostate cancers [1] | Not reported | Breast had the lowest sensitivity (53%) in the Achieve 1 study, per a news report [9] | Per-cancer sensitivity ranged from 96% (esophageal and gastric) down to 21% (prostate) in the AACR 2025 case-control study [10] |
| Technology, as described by the company | Next-generation sequencing of methylation patterns in cell-free DNA, with a predicted cancer signal origin [11] | Methylated cell-free DNA by real-time PCR plus protein biomarkers by immunoassay [6] | Whole genome and whole transcriptome sequencing with an artificial intelligence model [12] | Methylation patterns and cell-free DNA fragment positions (fragmentomics), with genomic analysis [13] |
| Performance in screening studies These numbers come from studies that gave the test to healthy people and then followed them. This is the closest thing to what would happen if you took the test. | ||||
| Sensitivity, all cancers | 39.3% (95% CI 34.9-44.0), 12-month episode sensitivity; PATHFINDER 2, 32,007 participants [14] | No prospective screening data for the commercial test | No prospective screening data | No prospective screening data; enrolled in the NCI Vanguard study (up to 24,000 people ages 45-75) since July 2025 [15] |
| Sensitivity, 12 pre-specified deadly cancers | 69.8% (95% CI 62.8-76.0); PATHFINDER 2 [14] | Not reported | Not reported | Not reported |
| Specificity | 99.6% (95% CI 99.6-99.7); PATHFINDER 2 [14] | Not reported | Not reported | Not reported |
| Positive predictive value | 60.3% (95% CI 54.5-65.8); 173 cancers among 287 positive results; PATHFINDER 2 [14] | Not reported | Not reported | Not reported |
| Cancer signal origin accuracy | 91.3% (95% CI 86.2-94.7); PATHFINDER 2 [14] | Not applicable; the test does not report a cancer signal origin [6] | Not reported | Not reported |
| Share of detected cancers at stage I-II | 53.0% (80 of 151); PATHFINDER 2 [14] | Not reported | Not reported | Not reported |
| Randomized trial: primary endpoint | Not met; stage III and IV cancers combined, incidence rate ratio 1.03; NHS-Galleri [16] | Not reported | Not reported | Not reported |
| Randomized trial: stage IV cancers | Reduced 14% overall (incidence rate ratio 0.86); 22% and 26% in screening rounds 2 and 3; NHS-Galleri [16] | Not reported | Not reported | Not reported |
| Mortality data | None reported [16] | Not reported | Not reported | Not reported |
| Performance in case-control studies These studies mix known cancer patients with healthy volunteers. They make a test look better than it will in real screening. | ||||
| Sensitivity, overall | 51.5% (95% CI 49.6-53.3); CCGA validation set, 4,077 participants [17] | 55.6% (95% CI 49.0-62.0), excluding breast and prostate; validation study, 223 cancers of 17 types and 800 controls. The company notes real-world sensitivity may be lower than in case-control data [6] | Not reported | 60%; blinded case-control study, 778 participants (403 with cancer), AACR 2025 [10] |
| Sensitivity by stage | Stage I 16.8%, II 40.4%, III 77.0%, IV 90.1%; CCGA [17] | Stage I 26.8%, II 42.9%, III 63.6%, IV 89.3%; validation study, excluding breast and prostate [6] | Stage I 56.8%, II 67.7%, III 79.0%, IV 98.6%; Achieve 1 study, 3,014 subjects enrolled on the basis of high-risk screening, symptoms, or a mass on imaging; reported in a company press release, not published or peer reviewed [18] | Not reported |
| Specificity | 99.5% (95% CI 99.0-99.8); CCGA [17] | 97.4% (95% CI 96.0-98.3); validation study [6] | 99.2% in 141 asymptomatic subjects; 96.0% in 2,051 subjects with benign conditions or high risk; Achieve 1; reported in a company press release, not published or peer reviewed [18] | 98.5%; AACR 2025 case-control study [10] |
| Evidence and practical details A randomized trial is the strongest evidence. A company brochure is the weakest. | ||||
| Evidence, as reported | Randomized trial (NHS-Galleri) and prospective screening study (PATHFINDER 2), both presented at ASCO 2026 as abstracts; the earlier PATHFINDER study was published in The Lancet in 2023 [14] | Case-control studies reported in a company brochure and a conference abstract [6] | Company press release only; not peer reviewed; not a screening population [18] | Case-control conference data only (AACR 2025, ASCO 2025) [10] |
| Time to results, as stated by the company | About 2 weeks after the sample arrives at the lab; up to 4 weeks in some cases [1] | About 2 weeks after the lab receives the sample [19] | About 2 to 3 weeks after the blood draw [3] | Not reported |
* Not yet available in the US.
| Study | Test | Design | Participants | Where reported |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PATHFINDER 2 [14] | Galleri | Prospective screening study, single arm, results returned to participants | 35,878 enrolled; 32,007 in the performance analysis | ASCO 2026, abstract LBA10509 (J Clin Oncol 2026;44(17_suppl)) |
| NHS-Galleri [16] | Galleri | Randomized controlled trial, three annual screening rounds | 142,250 | ASCO 2026, abstract LBA100; GRAIL press release May 30, 2026 |
| PATHFINDER [22] | Galleri | Prospective screening study, results returned to participants | 6,661 evaluable | Lancet 2023;402:1251-60 (summarized in The ASCO Post, October 19, 2023) |
| CCGA validation substudy [17] | Galleri | Case-control, independent validation set | 4,077 (2,823 with cancer, 1,254 without) | Annals of Oncology 2021;32(9):1167-77 |
| Cancerguard development and validation studies [6] | Cancerguard | Case-control; headline figures exclude breast and prostate | Development: 729 cancers, 2,434 controls. Validation: 324 cancers, 800 controls | Cancerguard clinician brochure (rev. 10/2025); not peer reviewed |
| Achieve 1 [18] | Caris Detect | Enrolled on the basis of high-risk screening, symptoms, or a mass on imaging; not a screening population | 3,014 evaluable | Caris press release March 31, 2026; not peer reviewed |
| Shield MCD case-control study [10] | Shield MCD | Blinded case-control | 778 (403 with cancer) | AACR 2025; Guardant press release April 29, 2025 |
| NCI Vanguard Study [15] | Shield MCD | Feasibility study for future randomized trials of multi-cancer tests | Up to 24,000, ages 45-75 | Ongoing; enrolling since July 2025 |
Each bracketed number on this page opens one of these. Values were confirmed against the linked page on September 6, 2026.