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Sunday December 08, 2024

Cancer test company misinforms 400 individuals with diagnosis

Company assured that no patient's health information had been exposed and patients were contacted as soon as the became aware of the issue

By Web Desk
June 03, 2023
This representational picture shows a doctor looking at test results while talking on the phone. — Unsplash/File
This representational picture shows a doctor looking at test results while talking on the phone. — Unsplash/File

A cancer test company's telemedicine vendor, Grail Inc, mistakenly sent form letters to 400 patients on Friday, suggesting that they may have developed cancer.

Galleri, the primary blood test for cancer diagnosis offered by the company, is designed to detect more than 50 different malignancies even before symptoms appear.

"GRAIL has confirmed that the issue was in no way related to or caused by an incorrect Galleri laboratory test result," the company, which is owned by San Diego-based biotechnology company Illumina Inc, told Fox News Digital.

"The incorrect letter from PWNHealth was inadvertently triggered by its software configuration issue, which has now been disabled," they added.

The company asserted that no patient's health information had been exposed or compromised as a result, and it had notified the patients as soon as they became aware of the issue.

Illumina is presently appealing regulatory orders in the US and EU that urge it to sell Grail after it bypassed regulators to complete its acquisition of the cancer test maker.

According to the FTC, the $7.1 billion transaction would impede innovation and competition in the US market for life-saving cancer testing.

The revolutionary Galleri test would actually "increase the availability, affordability, and profitability in the $44-plus billion multi-cancer screening market," according to Illumina, which made this claim in a press release in April.