Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos have invested more than 100 million dollars in a new cancer test. Grail, the company developing the test, said on Tuesday in Beijing that the method was a universal blood test to identify early-stage cancers in people with no symptoms. Jay Flatley, Illumina Chief Executive, who would serve as chairman of Grail, said the technology was aimed at detecting newly-forming cancers, and treat them at an earlier stage to increase the chances of survival.

He said the company started this new test 18 months ago, and that it was estimated to take at least an additional year of research and development to refine it. Flatley said the process was being carried out through a technique called a “liquid biopsy’’. “It scans patients’ blood streams for signs of cancer DNA, which can indicate that a tumor is forming, even if a doctor can’t see it on a scan and the patient hasn’t