Exciting news for NHS Wales as QuicDNA Study receives major investment.

After the exciting award win on 4^th December 2025, it has been confirmed that the QuicDNA study, led by the All Wales Genomics Service will receive a major £2.52 million investment to continue and expand on the successes of the trial so far.

The trial evaluated the use of liquid biopsies within the lung cancer diagnostic pathway in Wales through blood testing - as a simple and non-invasive alternative to surgical tumour biopsies, whereby genomic analysis of the blood sample is carried out earlier in the diagnostic pathway to detect traces of cancer DNA and allow doctors to identify the genetic makeup and choose the most effective treatment.Early data from the trial indicates faster diagnosis and treatment for patients along this pathway than they would have experienced via the tissue biopsy diagnostics, highlighting the transformative potential of this approach to transform outcomes and improve survival rates. 

What happens next?

Following the success of the QuicDNA partnership study and its potential to transform diagnosis pathways and treatments, the team and the partners are seeking to implement liquid biopsy as the standard of care for all Health Boards in Wales.

The QuicDNA Team has been granted £2.52 million, including £1.2m from the Welsh Government and £1.3m from the UK Office for Life Sciences (OLS), to support the next phase of the programme, known as QuicDNA Max.

This investment will accelerate the use of cutting-edge liquid biopsy technology and will upscale the study to include the ctDNA testing of other cancer types as well as the rollout of QuicDNA Max across all Welsh Health Boards, supporting faster and more personalised treatment decisions for more cancer pathway patients across Wales.

Given the scale of the next phase, the investment will also support the recruitment of specialist staff and the embedding of genomic testing into routine NHS care in Wales.