disadvantages of cancer screenings, health and medicine homework help

Cancer ScreeningThere is a growing recognition among medical professionals that cancerscreening is adouble-edged sword. While some individuals may benefit from early detection,othersmay be falsely diagnosed and treated for cancer unnecessarily. To make gooddecisionsabout screening, the public needs to know its potential benefits and harms.The following two paragraphs are taken from a study to test physicians’ability tointerpret clinical laboratory results.To diagnose colorectal cancer, the hemoccult test is conducted to detectoccultblood in the stool. For symptom-free people over 50 years old whoparticipate inscreening using the hemoccult test, the following information is available.The probability that one of these people has colorectal cancer is 0.3percent. If aperson has colorectal cancer, the probability is 50 percent that he willhave apositive hemoccult test. If a person does not have colorectal cancer, theprobability is 3 percent that he will still have a positive hemocculttest. Imagine aperson (over age 50, no symptoms) who has a positive hemoccult test inyourscreening. What is the probability that this person actually hascolorectalcancer?Your assignment is to use this hemoccult testscenario as an example to communicate thenature of a medical test to a lay person. (Thinkof a family member or a friend who is notfamiliar with statistics.) You need toincorporate three elements in your essay:1. Identify the base rate (or prevalence inmedical literature), sensitivity (thepercentage of individuals with a disease who arecorrectly classified as having thedisease), and false positive rate in this case.Provide a brief and clear descriptionof these terms using your own words.2. Calculate the probability that this personactually has colorectal cancer given apositive test.3. Based on your analysis, communicate yourresult to someone who thinks thatroutine cancer screening tests for healthypersons are always a good idea.Your essay will be scored based on your (1)interpretation, (2) calculation, and (3)communication; see the attached rubric. Butdon’t simply do what the rubric tells you todo. Be creative: up to 3 additional points are based oneffort, originality, or insight