GRAIL Secures $390 Million in Series D Funding to Advance Multi-Cancer Early Detection Blood Test

Today, GRAIL, a star company dedicated to early cancer diagnosis, announced the completion of a $390 million Series D financing round to support the development and commercialization of its liquid biopsy test for detecting multiple types of cancer. Since 2016, the company has raised over $1.9 billion through four rounds of financing, with the aim of reducing global patient mortality rates through early cancer detection.

GRAIL, Inc. combines next-generation sequencing (NGS) technology, cutting-edge computer science and data science, and large-scale clinical studies to develop liquid biopsy methods for the early diagnosis of cancer. The liquid biopsy developed by GRAIL extracts cell-free DNA (cfDNA) from patients’ blood and then detects the presence of cancer and its tissue of origin through analysis of cfDNA methylation patterns.

By comparing cfDNA methylation profiles from a large cohort of cancer patients and healthy volunteers, and leveraging machine learning, a liquid biopsy test based on cancer-specific methylation signatures has been developed. Previous research data indicate that this early cancer detection test can identify more than 50 types of cancer across all stages via blood testing, with a false-positive rate of less than 1%. The test aims to minimize false positives, thereby reducing patient anxiety and the harms associated with unnecessary diagnostic procedures. When a cancer signal is detected, the test can accurately pinpoint the tissue of origin, which is a critical step in guiding subsequent diagnosis and clinical management.

Screenshot source: Annals of Oncology

In a study led this year by top medical research institutions, including the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and the Mayo Clinic, covering thousands of patients, researchers analyzed cfDNA in 6,689 blood samples using this detection method. The samples included both patients with confirmed cancer diagnoses and cancer-free subjects. The trial results showed an overall specificity of 99.3% for this method, meaning a false-positive rate of only 0.7%. The sensitivity for Stage I–III disease across all 50 cancer types was 43.9% (i.e., the proportion of actual cancer cases correctly detected).

Furthermore, the research team conducted a further analysis of the method’s performance in 12 types of cancer with high mortality rates in the United States. Among these 12 cancers, the sensitivity of the method for earlier-stage cancers was 67.3%. Sensitivity increased with more advanced disease stages, with accurate detection rates of 39%, 69%, 83%, and 92% for Stage I, II, III, and IV cancers, respectively. Upon cancer detection, the method correctly identified the organ or tissue of origin in over 90% of cases, providing critical information for disease diagnosis and treatment.

“Nearly 80% of cancer deaths are caused by cancers for which screening tests are not currently available. GRAIL’s mission is to change this by enabling the early detection and localization of more than 50 types of cancer,” said Hans Bishop, CEO of GRAIL. “Achieving this through a single blood draw can improve access for populations in rural areas and underserved communities, thereby enhancing patient adherence to cancer screening.”

References:

[1] GRAIL Announces $390 Million Series D Financing，Retrieved May 6，2020，from https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200506005993/en

Original Title: $390 Million in Series D Funding! Its Single Blood Test Can Detect Over 50 Types of Cancer