In The Headlines: Is early detection always good? Inside NCI’s MCD feasibility trial.

Do multi-cancer detection tests provide a net benefit? NCI aims to answer this question, beginning with the Vanguard feasibility trial which recently started accruing patients.

Sara Willa Ernst, The Cancer Letter’s newest reporter, made her The Cancer Letter podcast debut this week to talk about her first cover story: The launch of NCI’s Vanguard feasibility study.

Sara was joined by Paul Goldberg, editor and publisher of The Cancer Letter, and Claire Marie Porter, reporter, to talk about the Vanguard trial, which is the newest development in the story of multi-cancer detection tests. 

“Is early detection always good? Especially when we’re talking about the very very early stages?” Sara said. 

This is one of the questions at the heart of NCI’s approach to studying MCDs, and one that is becoming increasingly urgent at a time when science is imperiled by funding cuts.

“When are you doing good, and when are you doing harm?” Paul said. “Which is actually incredibly timely, because the word is that the U.S. Preventative Services Task Force, all of the members are likely going to be fired by Kennedy, and AHRQ is going to be cut. So the greatest achievement of evidence-based medicine in the world is about to be dismantled.” 

Stories mentioned in this podcast include:

• Will MCD tests revolutionize cancer screening? NCI begins enrollment in Vanguard “feasibility” trial to start finding out 

• Robert Winn: If Medicaid gets massive cuts or goes away, where will these patients get care?

• Oncologist biotech entrepreneur George Tidmarsh joins FDA as CDER director His appointment came out of “proximity” to Makary and Bhattacharya

• FY25 paylines drop to 4th percentile—a historic low—as NCI braces for Trump’s FY26 budget cuts

• Right-wing provocateur Laura Loomer comes for FDA’s Vinay Prasad

• The effects of NIH, FDA cuts will be felt for decades, CBO report estimates

• NIH says it’s moving away from animal-based models

A transcript of this podcast is available: https://cancerletter.com/podcastc/20250730-mcds/