Re:Blood test that finds 50 types of cancer is accurate enou...
by bcrosby95 on Friday June 25, 2021 @11:35AM
(#27632097)
> somewhat reliable marker
For the USA...
Something around 1.8 million people are diagnosed with cancer per year. At a 50% false negative rate, all else being equal it would detect 900k of those.
And all else being equal, at a 0.5% false positive rate, if it were used as suggested it would incorrectly diagnose cancer in around 1.6 million of the population.
So around 60% of the people it says has cancer wouldn't have cancer. I guess it depends upon what you mean by "somewhat reliable".
For the USA...
Something around 1.8 million people are diagnosed with cancer per year. At a 50% false negative rate, all else being equal it would detect 900k of those.
And all else being equal, at a 0.5% false positive rate, if it were used as suggested it would incorrectly diagnose cancer in around 1.6 million of the population.
So around 60% of the people it says has cancer wouldn't have cancer. I guess it depends upon what you mean by "somewhat reliable".