If you’re a Medicare beneficiary who has been treated for lung cancer, there’s important news that could affect your ongoing care. Medicare has approved coverage for a new blood test called NeXT Personal, which can detect signs of cancer returning long before traditional scans might catch it. This breakthrough in cancer monitoring gives you and your doctors a powerful new tool in your fight against lung cancer, and it’s now covered under your Medicare benefits.
What This Test Does
The NeXT Personal test is a molecular residual disease test, often called an MRD test. In simple terms, it’s a blood test that looks for tiny fragments of cancer DNA floating in your bloodstream. When cancer cells die, they release small pieces of their genetic material into your blood. This test can find those fragments even when they’re present in extremely small amounts, sometimes detecting cancer activity months before it would show up on a CT scan or other imaging test.
What makes this test different from other blood tests you might have had is its remarkable sensitivity. The NeXT Personal test can detect cancer DNA at levels as low as one to three parts per million. To put that in perspective, imagine trying to find a handful of specific grains of sand on an entire beach. The test achieves this by tracking up to 1,800 different mutations that are unique to your specific tumor. Think of it as creating a personalized fingerprint of your cancer that can then be searched for in your blood samples over time.
For you as a patient, this means your oncologist can monitor your health more closely after your initial cancer treatment ends. Instead of waiting for symptoms to appear or for a tumor to grow large enough to see on a scan, your doctor can now detect microscopic evidence of cancer activity much earlier. This earlier detection could give you more options and more time if your cancer does come back.
Who Qualifies for Coverage
Medicare now covers this test for patients with Stage I through Stage III non-small cell lung cancer. Non-small cell lung cancer is the most common type of lung cancer, accounting for about 85% of all lung cancer cases. If you’ve been diagnosed with this type of cancer and have completed your initial treatment, you may be eligible for ongoing monitoring with the NeXT Personal test.
The coverage is specifically for surveillance, which means it’s designed for monitoring you after treatment to watch for any signs that the cancer might be returning. This is particularly important because lung cancer has a significant risk of recurrence even in earlier stages. Many patients who seem to be cancer-free after surgery or other treatments still worry about whether the disease might come back. This test addresses that concern by providing a more sensitive way to monitor your health over time.
If you have Medicare and have been treated for Stage I, II, or III non-small cell lung cancer, you should talk to your oncologist about whether this test is appropriate for your situation. Your doctor can explain how the test might fit into your overall monitoring plan and help you understand what the results could mean for your care.
The Science Behind the Approval
Medicare doesn’t approve coverage for new tests without solid scientific evidence, and the NeXT Personal test has been thoroughly validated through a major research study. The evidence supporting this coverage comes from the TRACERx study, a landmark research project that followed lung cancer patients over many years. This study, funded by Cancer Research UK and conducted at University College London, recently published its findings in Cell, one of the world’s most respected scientific journals.
The TRACERx researchers analyzed blood samples from 431 lung cancer patients, collecting nearly 3,000 samples over a median follow-up period of more than five years. The results were impressive. The test detected cancer DNA in 100% of non-adenocarcinoma lung cancer cases and 81% of lung adenocarcinoma cases before surgery. Lung adenocarcinoma is one of the most challenging subtypes to detect through blood tests because it typically sheds less DNA into the bloodstream, so this high detection rate represents a significant advance.
Perhaps most importantly for patients concerned about their long-term outlook, the study found that patients whose blood showed no detectable cancer DNA before surgery had a 100% five-year overall survival rate and a 94% relapse-free survival rate. The study also showed that when cancer did return, the blood test detected it an average of six to eleven months before traditional imaging methods like CT scans could find it. Those extra months of lead time could make a meaningful difference in treatment options and outcomes.
Why Early Detection Matters
You might wonder why detecting cancer recurrence a few months earlier makes such a difference. The answer lies in how cancer grows and spreads. When cancer returns, it often starts as microscopic clusters of cells that are too small to cause symptoms or show up on scans. During this time, the cancer may be easier to treat because it hasn’t had a chance to spread to other parts of your body or grow into larger tumors.
Catching cancer recurrence at its earliest stages can expand your treatment options. Your doctors may be able to use less aggressive treatments, or treatments may be more effective when the cancer burden is smaller. In some cases, earlier detection might mean the difference between a localized recurrence that can be treated definitively and a more widespread return of the disease that requires ongoing management.
For lung cancer patients specifically, this kind of monitoring addresses a real and pressing concern. Lung cancer remains the leading cause of cancer death in the United States, with roughly 230,000 new cases diagnosed each year. Even patients with early-stage disease face meaningful recurrence risks. The traditional approach of periodic CT scans and watching for symptoms leaves many patients feeling anxious between appointments, wondering if something might be growing that hasn’t been detected yet. Having a more sensitive monitoring tool can provide both clinical benefits and peace of mind.
What This Means for Your Care
If you’re a lung cancer survivor covered by Medicare, this new coverage represents an important addition to your monitoring options. The NeXT Personal test doesn’t replace your regular follow-up appointments, imaging studies, or other aspects of your care plan. Instead, it adds another layer of surveillance that can detect problems earlier than previously possible.
To take advantage of this coverage, start by talking with your oncologist or cancer care team. They can determine whether you meet the criteria for coverage and whether the test makes sense given your specific diagnosis, treatment history, and current health status. Not every patient will need this type of monitoring, but for many lung cancer survivors, it could become a valuable part of their ongoing care.
It’s worth noting that this coverage for lung cancer follows a similar approval for breast cancer monitoring that Medicare granted in late 2025. The expansion to lung cancer represents Personalis’s continued efforts to make their ultrasensitive testing technology available to more cancer patients through Medicare. For seniors who have fought lung cancer, having access to this advanced monitoring tool through their existing Medicare coverage removes a significant barrier to state-of-the-art cancer surveillance.
Conclusion
The approval of Medicare coverage for the NeXT Personal test in lung cancer surveillance marks a significant step forward for seniors fighting this disease. You now have access to a highly sensitive blood test that can detect signs of cancer recurrence months before traditional methods, potentially giving you and your doctors valuable time to respond. This coverage reflects the strong scientific evidence from the TRACERx study and recognizes the importance of early detection in improving outcomes for lung cancer patients.
As Medicare coverage expands to include breakthrough tests like this one, it’s worth taking time to explore all the benefits available to you. If you’re unsure whether you qualify, now is a good time to ask. Help is just a phone call away. A quick review of your current plan can clarify what’s covered and what steps you should take next. For more information about Medicare coverage for NeXT Personal, please call 866-633-4427 to speak with a Senior Healthcare Solutions Medicare expert.
