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An independent panel of advisers to the Food and Drug Administration recommended the agency approve Guardant Health’s blood-based colon cancer detection test. If the agency follows the recommendation, it will clear an early hurdle for the test’s broader adoption.

The expert panel spent hours listening to presentations from Guardant, the FDA, and members of the public before voting on the screening test, called Shield. The panel’s nine voting members then voted on whether the test was safe, effective, and whether its benefits outweigh its risks, with eight, six, and seven panelists endorsing those views, respectively.

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FDA approval is a requirement for winning coverage from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which could be the difference between Guardant’s test becoming widespread — or irrelevant. In 2021, CMS denied coverage for Epi proColon, a different blood-based colon cancer test approved by the FDA. Soon after, the test’s maker, Epigenomics, announced that it would stop actively marketing the test, and last year the company announced a restructuring that included layoffs.

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