Staying Ahead of Cancer: A Doctor’s Commitment to Early Detection with a Single Blood Test
Posted: June 17, 2025 | Word Count: 1,035
Empowering Patients Through Personalized Care
Dr. Candace Westgate is on a mission to help patients take control of their health and go further with cancer screenings. As a board-certified obstetrician and gynecologist and Director of Personalized Medicine at Community Health Network, she's dedicated to moving healthcare beyond a "one-size-fits-all" approach, advocating for personalized, proactive screening strategies. Women's health, cancer risk assessment and prevention strongly align with her philosophy.
"Preventive care is at the heart of what I do," says Dr. Westgate. "I believe in partnering with and empowering patients on their journey to health — treating the whole person rather than just focusing on disease."
A New Era in Cancer Screening & Early Detection
Dr. Westgate's approach includes offering patients a personalized risk assessment and management plan, which may include genetic counseling and cutting-edge cancer screening tests like the Galleri® multi-cancer early detection (MCED) test. The proactive screening tool is recommended for adults with an elevated risk for cancer, such as those age 50 or older, and should be used in addition to cancer screenings your doctor recommends.
"Right now, catching cancer early is a game-changer," Dr. Westgate emphasizes. "We have individual tests for five specific cancers, but nearly 70% of cancer-related deaths are caused by cancers with no routine screening options."1,2*
That's where the Galleri test comes in. "When I first learned about the Galleri test, I was amazed," she recalls. "This innovative tool screens for multiple types of cancer — even some of the deadliest — before symptoms appear, using just a simple blood draw."3,4
Cancers growing in the body shed DNA into the bloodstream, and the DNA fragments can act like a unique "fingerprint" of cancer.3,5,6 If the Galleri test result identifies a unique "fingerprint", the test also provides doctors with information on the tissue type or organ associated with the cancer signal, to help guide the next steps of what diagnostic testing is needed.4
Who Is Eligible for the Galleri Test?
It is intended for asymptomatic individuals and is available by prescription only.
"It's important to remember that the Galleri test is meant to be used in addition to — not replace — standard screenings such as mammograms, colonoscopies, PSA tests, and cervical cancer screenings," Dr. Westgate notes.
A Future Focused on Prevention
Dr. Westgate's commitment to preventive care is reshaping how patients and providers think about cancer screening. By embracing innovative tools like the Galleri test, she's empowering individuals to stay ahead of cancer — one personalized step at a time.
Learn More
The Galleri test must be prescribed by a healthcare provider and should be used in addition to recommended cancer screenings such as mammography, colonoscopy, prostate specific antigen (PSA) test and/or cervical cancer screening. It is intended for use in adults with an elevated risk for cancer, such as those aged 50 or older.
The Galleri test does not detect a signal for all cancers, and not all cancers can be detected in the blood. False-positive and false-negative results do occur.
Based on a clinical study of people ages 50 to 79, around 1% are expected to receive a "Cancer Signal Detected" result. After diagnostic evaluation, around 40% of these people are expected to have a confirmed cancer diagnosis.
For more information about Galleri, visit galleri.com.
Important Safety Information
The Galleri test is recommended for use in adults with an elevated risk for cancer, such as those age 50 or older. The test does not detect all cancers and should be used in addition to routine cancer screening tests recommended by a healthcare provider. The Galleri test is intended to detect cancer signals and predict where in the body the cancer signal is located. Use of the test is not recommended in individuals who are pregnant, 21 years old or younger, or undergoing active cancer treatment.
Results should be interpreted by a healthcare provider in the context of medical history, clinical signs, and symptoms. A test result of No Cancer Signal Detected does not rule out cancer. A test result of Cancer Signal Detected requires confirmatory diagnostic evaluation by medically established procedures (e.g., imaging) to confirm cancer.
If cancer is not confirmed with further testing, it could mean that cancer is not present or testing was insufficient to detect cancer, including due to the cancer being located in a different part of the body. False positive (a cancer signal detected when cancer is not present) and false negative (a cancer signal not detected when cancer is present) test results do occur. Rx only.
Laboratory/Test Information
The GRAIL clinical laboratory is certified under the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments of 1988 (CLIA) and accredited by the College of American Pathologists. The Galleri test was developed — and its performance characteristics were determined — by GRAIL. The Galleri test has not been cleared or approved by the Food and Drug Administration. The GRAIL clinical laboratory is regulated under CLIA to perform high-complexity testing. The Galleri test is intended for clinical purposes.
*Assumes screening is available for all prostate, breast, cervical, and colorectal cancer cases and 43% of lung cancer cases (based on the estimated proportion of lung cancers that occur in screen-eligible individuals older than 40 years).
References:
- American Cancer Society. Cancer facts & figures 2022. https://www.cancer.org/research/cancer-facts-statistics/all-cancer-facts-figures/cancer-facts-figures-2022.html [GRAIL, LLC. Data on file: GA-2021-0065]
- US Preventive Services Task Force. A,B,C grade recommendations, cancer, screenings. [cited 2023 Oct 23]. https://www.uspreventiveservicestaskforce.org/uspstf/topic_search_results
- Klein EA, Richards D, Cohn A, et al. Clinical Validation of a Targeted Methylation N-Based Multi-Cancer Early Detection Test Using an Independent Validation Set. Ann Oncol. 2021;32(9):1167-1177. Doi: 10.1016/j.annonc.2021.05.806.
- Schrag D, Beer TM, McDonnell CH, et al. Blood-based tests for multi-cancer early detection (PATHFINDER): a prospective cohort study. Lancet. 2023;402:1251-1260. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(23)01700-2
- Liu MC, Oxnard GR, Klein EA, et al. Sensitive and specific multi-cancer detection and localization using methylation signatures in cell-free DNA. Ann Oncol. 2020 Mar 30;31(6):745-59. doi: 10.1016/j.annonc.2020.02.011
- Thierry AR, El Messaoudi S, Gahan PB, et al. Origins, structures, and functions of circulating DNA in oncology. Cancer Metastasis Rev. 2016 Jul 8;35:347–76. doi: 10.1007/s10555-016-9629-x
