The Promise and Risk of Multi-Cancer Blood Tests
Liquid biopsy tests, blood tests with the potential to detect up to 50 types of cancers, are being embraced by some in the health care community but viewed with careful consideration by others.
In this episode, Jason Oke, medical statistician and lecturer at the University of Oxford’s Centre for Evidence-based Medicine, discusses the promise of these multi-cancer, early detection tests, alongside their limitations when it comes to real world application. He explains how effective screening tests of all kinds are measured, shares data from randomized trials that early detection tests show, and reveals how sensitivity, specificity, over-diagnosis and “healthy screenee bias” contribute to test value.
Employees are excited about the potential of these tests. Employers should listen in for an unbiased, data-backed perspective to determine if benefits programs should evolve to include this offering.
Guest: Jason Oke | Medical statistician and lecturer in medical statistics and cancer research at the University of Oxford
Posted in:
Audio Podcast, Business Group on Health, Healthcare
