Duke Health

Multi-cancer early detection tests–MCEDs for short–are being touted as game-changers with the potential to change cancer screening and detection within the next 5 to 7 years.

In our ongoing Conversations in Cancer series, Diane Reidy-Lagunes, MD, a medical oncologist at Duke Health, talks to Kevin Oeffinger, MD, founding Director of the Duke Cancer Institute's Center for Onco-Primary Care, and Co-Director of the DCI's Supportive Care and Survivorship Center. He is also the principal investigator at Duke for Pathfinder 2, a large-scale, multi-center clinical trial that has been studying how well these blood tests can detect cancers. 

Learn how these tests work, the benefits and concerns, and who should get tested.

Winston-Salem attorney Erik Harvey spent eight years on dialysis before he was approved for a kidney transplant. On the day he became eligible, his long-time friend and colleague, Elizabeth Lawson, signed up to donate a kidney to him. Thanks to her eagerness and Duke Health’s quick donor testing process, Harvey had a new kidney in just two months. Now, one year later, he’s enjoying life free from dialysis and celebrating his 50th birthday.

A pill called daraxonrasib has been shown to increase survival rates in previously treated people with metastatic pancreatic cancer, according to a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine. While the drug has yet to be approved by the FDA, people with pancreatic cancer who have had chemotherapy can access daraxonrasib at Duke Health through an expanded access program. “We haven't had advances in metastatic pancreatic cancer like this for more than 15 years.” said Duke Health medical oncologist Niharika B. Mettu, MD, PhD.