Guardant Health is joining in on the American Lung Association’s (ALA’s) push to raise awareness about lung cancer screening and biomarker testing.
The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommends annual lung cancer screening for some current and former smokers, but uptake is low. In its State of Lung Cancer 2024 report, the ALA said (PDF) only 16% of high-risk people were screened in the U.S. The advocacy group also raised concerns about the proportion of patients—23%—who receive chemotherapy or radiotherapy before undergoing full biomarker testing.
Guardant, which sells lung cancer tests, is providing support to the ALA’s work to share evidence-based resources about lung cancer screening and biomarker testing, according to a campaign launch announcement Wednesday.
“Unfortunately, not enough people are getting these tests, so we went right to the source—people with lung cancer and their families—to find out why,” Harold Wimmer, CEO of the ALA, said in the announcement. “We then crafted this new campaign based on their feedback to make sure more people get screened for lung cancer and receive information about the pathway to diagnosis and comprehensive biomarker testing.”
Talking to focus groups made up of caregivers and individuals living with lung cancer revealed a clutch of potential barriers to testing, as people reported feeling overwhelmed and unprepared after learning they had a lung nodule, per the ALA. Those problems were compounded by poor or inconsistent communication, adding to confusion and distress, as well as misunderstandings about what monitoring lung nodules entails.
The ALA is seeking to address the problems with online materials about what to do after a lung cancer diagnosis. Another section of the ALA’s lung cancer website features a quiz people can take to determine whether they are eligible for screening.
Guardant is among the companies working on lung tests, including products that inform treatment and diagnostics for use in screening programs.
AmirAli Talasaz, co-CEO of Guardant, provided an update on the lung cancer screening project at an analyst day Wednesday. Talasaz said lung cancer is a strategic indication for Guardant’s Shield screening test, “but it’s going to take a few years.”
Shield is currently available for other screening applications, though, and Guardant is pumping cash into promoting the test. Chief Financial Officer Michael Bell told analysts the company will continue to increase its sales and marketing spend and reinvest all gross profit from Shield in 2025 and 2026. The company expects the outlays to result in about $200 million in screening cash burn in 2025 and 2026.