5 ms·

You only need one false positive test result that ends up with a colonoscopy to understand how costly and uncomfortable these errors can be. (I'm using an unco

• theptip 5y ago
  Perhaps a better example than you intended -- recently colonoscopies are being considered more risky as a regular screening tool, because the procedure itself can result in harms, including (rarely) death. Not an expert here, but it seems they are still used in a fairly wide age group, but the recent trend is to be more cautious about their usage, as particularly for older patients they are more risky vs. the potential benefits. [1] However I think this concern would be reduced if we had better first-line screening like the tests in TFA; the harms come from using a relatively-risky assay like colonoscopy for regular screening in healthy individuals, whereas if we had better noninvasive screening, the colonoscopy could be reserved for patients where there's a higher probability of a positive diagnosis. [1]: https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2529486 https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2529486