A follow up post explaining what happened after my blood was drawn for the Galleri Cancer test that screens for 50+ cancers
As I wrote in a previous post, I sought the Galleri test for cancer detection because both my father and my sister died of pancreatic cancer in their fifties. Now that I’m also in my fifties, I’ve become increasingly concerned that I might also get pancreatic cancer. My worries aren’t unfounded, when I went to genetic counseling I learned that my odds of getting pancreatic cancer are nearly 12% higher than the general population.
So, I decided to take the Galleri test.
Grail sent me the kit in the mail, which was a smallish cardboard box. It said not to open it, but to just bring it to my local lab, and it provided me with a list of labs in my area. I went to a Quest lab at a local cancer center, thinking that they might be experienced with the Galleri test.
It’s a simple blood draw of two large-ish vials of blood, comparable to any typical metabolic panel.
However, the day I walked in with my cardboard box and handed it to the phlebotomist, they had never seen this test before. The conferred with their colleagues and none had ever given a Galleri test. However, when they opened the box the directions were quite clear about how to draw the blood and that they…