Re:Sensitivity & Specificity (Score 1)

"I fear this test will pick-up "cancers" of questionable significance."

My questions would be more about what types of cancer can be detected, I know there are dozens of forms of Lukaemia alone - not to mention "medical" cancers (Lukeamia being a haematological cancer). Is this kit capable of detecting liquid tumors aswell as solid tumors?

"What impact will such a test have on healthcare costs, if a battery of additional diagnostic tests are used to work-up a "positive" screening test?

Without the development of new treatments I would think that the total cost(not the per patient cost) to the community (more like HMO's in the states, community in .au and large parts of europe) of cancer treatmnents would go up in the short term (as there is a flood of newly diagnosed patients) and the drop (as patients have been treated and are out to maintainence and presumably less new cases are diagnosed). More importantly to cost this would give us a method of mass screening that would give a better indication of the occurance of cancer in the community than we currently have.

If you are interested in the cost of cancer care I can tell you that one of my firends was diagnosed with Lukaemia (Acute Myloid Lukaemia, or AML, to be pecise) in the US. The cost of his induction therapy and 3 consolodation therapies was over $100,000US. I was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Lukaemia (ALL), while I don't know the cost of my 2 induction therapies and 6 consolodations I do know the cost of my Bone Marrow Transplant was somewhere upward of $500,000AU. That is for the transplant alone, the cost of nutrient support and the other tratments surrounding my illness probably takes the total to $1.5 million ($AU) in just short of 2 years.