Grail's $700 blood test screens 50 cancers but misses many early cases

Telehealth company Hims & Hers is offering Grail's Galleri test — which uses two vials of blood to screen for more than 50 types of cancer — as part of a $350 annual lab membership. The company is selling the Galleri draw at a $250 discount, bringing the out-of-pocket cost to $700; combined with the membership the total reaches about $1,050.

Galleri works by detecting cancerous DNA shed into the blood, a method that makes it more reliable for finding advanced cancers than early-stage disease. In an ongoing 35,000-person study the test showed over 99% specificity but detected roughly 40% of cancers overall.

Earlier research found it picked up about 17% of stage 1 cancers and more than 90% of stage 4 cases. Because early tumors may not shed detectable DNA, Galleri can miss cases and is presented as a screening tool rather than a diagnostic test; Hims & Hers says it has trained clinicians on how to convey that limitation.

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