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Clarification needed: size of tumor and sensitivity

Posted by WillStott on 12 Oct 2010 at 09:37 GMT

to achieve 50% sensitivity in detecting tumors before they advance to stage III, an annual screen would need to detect tumors of 1.3 cm in diameter
http://plosmedicine.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pmed.1000114#article1.front1.article-meta1.abstract2.sec2.p1

it says here that 50% sensitivity requires detection of 1.3cm tumors, but in the next paragraph it says the size of tumors we would need to detect for 50% sensitivity are 200 times smaller than is typically used [today] to evaluate biomarkers. This seems to suggest that the size of tumors used to evaluate biomarkers is 200 x 1.3cm = 260cm!

No competing interests declared.

RE: Clarification needed: size of tumor and sensitivity

WillStott replied to WillStott on 12 Oct 2010 at 09:53 GMT

Please would the authors clarify the size of tumor that they believe can be detected today by TVS Examination and the size of tumor that would need to be detected to give 50% sensitivity in an annual screen.

No competing interests declared.