This startup says it can screen for over 50 cancers with one simple blood draw

Function Health, which launched in 2023, aims to help its members “live 100 healthy years.” The company offers over 100 lab tests that examine heart, liver, kidney, and thyroid health as well as other issues like nutrients and stress. A yearly membership for the program starts at $499 a year. Since launching nationwide in November, the company has amassed over 100,000 members.

With this new partnership, Function Health members will have access to GRAIL’s Galleri test — a first-of-its-kind, multi-cancer early detection test that screens for over 50 different types of cancers with a simple blood draw.

“Offering the Galleri test in collaboration with GRAIL is essential to ensuring that multi-cancer early detection becomes a routine part of people’s annual health checkups in addition to other recommended screenings, giving us a better chance to screen for cancer before it becomes symptomatic when there may be more treatment options,” Mark Hyman, Function Health co-founder and chief medical officer, said in a press release.

The clinically validated test works by looking for patterns in DNA, or what the company calls ‘fingerprints,” of different types of cancers before they become symptomatic.

Although, the test is not approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, physicians are allowed to order the test under the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Act (CLIA) because they are processed in a central laboratory. The test is meant to be used in addition to recommended routine cancer screenings like colonoscopies and mammograms.

Doctors typically test for five types of cancers, however, about 70 percent of cancer deaths come from types that don’t currently have proven screening tests.

In 2024, cancer is expected to affect over two million people in the U.S., with more than 611,000 people dying from the disease, according to the National Cancer Institute.

Function Health made headlines earlier this year when it partnered with Equinox on the world’s most expensive gym membership. The “Optimize by Equinox” personalized health program includes personal training, nutrition plans, sleep coaching, and 100 lab tests from Function Health, all for $40,000 a year. The partnership is part of a growing longevity industry that is trying to leverage the latest tech to combat aging.