3 ms·
Well, in a study that only tests on cancer patients, there are no negative examples to wrongly be classified as positive. That's for the second study (mentioned
by black_puppydog 9y ago
Well, in a study that only tests on cancer patients, there are no negative examples to wrongly be classified as positive.
That's for the second study (mentioned in the article) to show.
Still, this would be great, probably combined with (nearly) equally simple follow-up tests.
- pgt 9y agoFalse positive rate seems pretty key, or the test could be testing for brunettes where 70% of the population is brunette.
- jlebrech 9y agothey can falsely diagnose the wrong type of cancer?
- beberlei 9y agoThis test is probably not being used for "what kind of cancer" but as a cheap and easy way for yearly/bi-yearly tests of the general population as part of prevention.
- dx034 9y agoWith a 1% false positive rate that won't work I guess. False positive rate needs to be much smaller.
- justinpombrio 9y agoI don't think they do. If someone tests positive, I imagine the next step would be to do more thorough (and expensive, and time-consuming) tests and find out for sure.