A novel blood test accurately detected more than 50 types of cancer with a specificity of 99.3%, according to results of the prospective Circulating Cell-free Genome Atlas study published in Annals of Oncology.

The test, which uses targeted methylation analysis of circulating cell-free DNA, also predicted the tissue in which the malignancy originated in more than 90% of cases. In many cases, the test — made by GRAIL Inc. — yielded this information before people exhibited clinical signs or symptoms of their disease.