Bloomberg reported that Abbott Laboratories is in talks to acquire cancer-diagnostics company Exact Sciences, potentially within days. Exact Sciences sells the stool-based colorectal-screening test Cologuard and is commercializing blood-based early-detection and monitoring assays including Cancerguard and Oncodetect. Analysts cited potential margin and market-share gains for Abbott as the rationale. The discussions follow Exact’s recent moves to expand its blood-based testing portfolio, including rights it secured to Freenome’s colorectal screen. Barclays flagged Cologuard’s steady sales and Exact’s growing MCED and monitoring businesses as drivers of upside. If completed, the deal would give Abbott a broader oncology-diagnostics beachhead and accelerate its strategy to build a large diagnostics franchise. Context: mult cancer early detection (MCED) and decentralized diagnostics are rapidly consolidating as big diagnostics players seek scale. Regulatory, reimbursement and lab-capacity integration will determine how quickly combined assets can be commercialized and scaled across markets.