The next hurdle is a test's specificity. Specificity answers this question: What percentage of the people who do not have cancer are correctly identified as being free of disease? If a cancer test is not very specific, it will yield many "false positive" results; that is, a person will test positive even though they are cancer free. Such error can lead to unnecessary and costly follow-up procedures and cause anxiety in the person misdiagnosed.

< Previous  |  Index  |  Next Slide >