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kermitjeon Experimental blood test detects cancer up to four years before symptoms appear

Ah indeed, I was wrong. You will get approximately 6 false positives for every true positive.

Unfortunately I can't edit my comment anymore.

kermitjeon Experimental blood test detects cancer up to four years before symptoms appear

The real false positive rate is much higher than the 5% reported.

The false positive rate reported is ~5% in a sample with an equal number of people that did and did not develop cancer, while the ratio in reality is 1/122 (i.e., 1000 people developed cancer, 122000 did not).

Could still be a useful development, but it does make me wonder about the cost/benefits at this stage.