Heidelberg scandal: Every second patient received a false cancer diagnosis
Blood test diagnosed with every second woman falsely cancer
A blood test from Heidelberg caused a stir recently. The Test did not rate such a high error, that he would be around to diagnose each of the second wife, incorrectly cancer. A Team from the Leibniz-Institute for economic research looked at the case in more detail and raises serious allegations against the research team from Heidelberg.
“If such a Test for breast cancer Screening would be introduced, would be just under half of all healthy women in Germany, a suspicious finding,” writes the Leibniz-Institute for economic research (RWI). The RWI experts have looked at the Heidelberger-blood-test-scandal in more detail and to chose the Test for “same UN statistics, of the month”.
“World sensation from Germany” turns out to be a Mega-Flop
The said blood test for breast cancer was presented in a press release from the University of Heidelberg as a “milestone in the field of breast cancer diagnostics”. In the Bild-Zeitung, the Test made it to the title page and was touted as a “world sensation from Germany”. The Test will have a hit rate of 75 percent, and the market is already capable of.
It is not crucial whether or not you meet, but what
The researchers from the RWI to emphasise, however, that a hit rate alone is not a reliable statement about a Test. The decisive factor is the number of False-Alarm-Rate is also. This was not communicated at the Heidelberger blood test but.
Why is the False-Alarm Rate is as important as the hit rate
The RWI Team illustrates the connection in a simple example: “If you are diagnosed simply by every woman a Tumor, each Tumor is found, but also every healthy woman is incorrectly diagnosed.” The False-Alarm Rate would be at 100 percent, the correct diagnosis of cancer would also be at 100 percent. A high hit rate is only impressive when at the same time the False-Alarm Rate is as low as possible. For comparison: The mammography Screening have, for example, a hit rate of around 80 percent and a False Alarm Rate of five to ten percent.
The False-Alarm Rate was knowingly at 46 percent
The Leibniz-Institute for economic research recently received documents to a lecture at the University of Heidelberg to the blood test. The documents were created by Professor Christof Sohn, who presented the blood test. From the slides showed that the False-Alarm Rate in all women tested was 46 percent. This fact was concealed both from the University of the Bild-Zeitung.
Prosecutor’s office is investigating University of
The Test Germany would come this far, then would be diagnosed in almost every second woman falsely breast cancer. To market “with such a bad Test and of the health insurance funds pay, as the researchers announced, would be irresponsible,” write the RWI-specialists in a press release. According to the RWI, the office of the public Prosecutor for economic crime determined, in the meantime, in Mannheim, Germany in this case. The University of Heidelberg have apologised and an inquiry Commission was established.
Only to the IMAGE instead of the review
The experts from the RWI before throwing the Heidelberg researchers to have scientific Standards, and violated. Instead of before, the study examine, and to publish these, whether you went directly to the newspaper and have created a Sensation that led thousands of people astray. The researchers seem to have knowingly taken that in the event of a successful commercialization of millions of women a false cancer diagnosis have received. (vb)
