I bet people who just had a bladder biopsy instead of this test are a bit pissed.
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10 out of 10 then?
How many bladder cancers are there?
I work in genetic research on rare variants of leukemia. Cancer types are identified by their genetic variants and the phenotypes of the cancer cells. Some people can have multiple types of the same cancer because of that.
As for "9 in 10", it probably has a >90% detection rate
77. They detected 71, or 92.2% accuracy. For some reason, media are deathly afraid of using percentages, and always have to convert it to "1 in 6" or whatever.
Need money to live, so get a job. Need to pee in cup to get job. Company pays for the test so they get the results. Company offsets cost of test by selling data to test labs. Test labs find cancer markers and make note in database. Insurance company buys database. Insurance company marks pre-existing condition found in test and raises insurance costs. Still not informed of test results. Life insurance companies buy database. Premiums raised to point of being infeasible. Still not informed of test results. A few years pass. Get sick. Eventually get doctors appointment. Bladder cancer detected, stage 4. Die.
What's the problem here? You're right, it's how there's an opportunity not being captured. Our company will keep and maintain the database, and instead of losing money by insuring sick people, your company for a nominal fee can have constant access to the data so any underpayment issues can be avoided before they start.
That's my elevator pitch to a VC firm. The first paragraph is a storyboard for an ad we're going to shoot. The other higher-up at the company is going to see if his girlfriend will be the person in the story.
This is one of those statistics where wasting time with more research is actively killing people. But, of course, we'll continue to do so for the next decade while we really really know for sure that a passive test doesn't somehow harm the population.
Meanwhile, wonder drugs that actually do kill people are just pushed on through while the evidence gets buried.
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