Blood test that finds 50 types of cancer is accurate enough to be rolled out

Re:Blood test that finds 50 types of cancer is accurate enou... by plank_time on Friday June 25, 2021 @09:35AM (#27630570)

It’s pretty easy. If blood test says “liver cancer positive. Colon cancer negative.” you check the liver for cancer. No need to check the colon for cancer. No need to scan the entire body for lumps.

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Re:Blood test that finds 50 types of cancer is accurate enou... by graeme on Friday June 25, 2021 @12:30PM (#27632950)

Not that easy. “Check the liver for cancer” has lots of risks: surgery and the resulting tissue injury.

I’m generally inclined towards the position of more testing....but there are very real tradeoffs to any of the interventions that a blood test could prompt.

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Re:Blood test that finds 50 types of cancer is accurate enou... by jghn on Friday June 25, 2021 @01:24PM (#27633754)

Also, you might have identified liver cancer that came from the patient's kidney. Or a colorectal cancer that came from the patient's liver.

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Re:Blood test that finds 50 types of cancer is accurate enou... by colinmhayes on Friday June 25, 2021 @05:19PM (#27636400)

What happens when it turns out that most of the people having surgery don't have cancer? Because that's the reality of tests with a .5% false positive rate if less than 1% of the population is positive.

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