Dive Brief:
- Guardant Health and Quest Diagnostics will collaborate to offer Guardant’s Shield blood-based colorectal cancer test through Quest’s distribution network, the companies said Wednesday.
- Physicians will be able to order the test through their Quest accounts and electronic health record starting in the first quarter of 2026.
- In an investor day presentation, Guardant Co-CEO AmirAli Talasaz also revealed plans to expand Shield to include multi-cancer detection. The multi-cancer offering will be available nationally in October.
Dive Insight:
Guardian’s multiyear distribution agreement with Quest will broaden access to Shield, which is the first blood test to gain Food and Drug Administration approval as a primary screening option for colorectal cancer in adults 45 years or older who are at average risk for the disease. Patients with a positive Shield result are referred for colonoscopy evaluation.
Quest has about 650,000 clinicians and hospital accounts in its network. As part of the agreement with Guardant, Quest’s sales team will educate primary care physicians, obstetricians and gynecologists about the test.
“A blood-based test for colorectal cancer has the potential to reduce several barriers that prevent wider population screening,” Quest CEO Jim Davis said in a statement, emphasizing that Quest’s scale will help expand access nationally and could increase early detection.
Talasaz said all Shield tests will continue to be processed at Guardant.
At Wednesday’s investor meeting, Talasaz said Shield was built as a multi-cancer detection, or MCD, platform, with colorectal cancer chosen as the first indication because of the opportunity to answer a big unmet need for improved screening rates.
Shield received FDA approval as a primary screening option last summer, and the company has completed several studies that show the test is helping increase screening for colorectal cancer, he said.
For multi-cancer screening results, a patient’s physician would need to opt in to receive that report, and the patient would have to authorize the release of medical records to Guardant, said Talasaz.
Shield as a stand-alone MCD test has FDA breakthrough device designation. The test has been selected by the National Cancer Institute for use in its Vanguard study evaluating whether the benefits of MCD screening outweigh the harm, and if the tests can help prevent death.
Guardant projected Shield will generate more than $500 million in revenue in 2028.
