TY - JOUR
T1 - Estimating Cancer Screening Sensitivity and Specificity Using Healthcare Utilization Data
T2 - Defining the Accuracy Assessment Interval
AU - Chubak, Jessica
AU - Burnett-Hartman, Andrea N.
AU - Barlow, William E.
AU - Corley, Douglas A.
AU - Croswell, Jennifer M.
AU - Neslund-Dudas, Christine
AU - Vachani, Anil
AU - Silver, Michelle I.
AU - Tiro, Jasmin A.
AU - Kamineni, Aruna
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
©2022 American Association for Cancer Research.
PY - 2022/8
Y1 - 2022/8
N2 - The effectiveness and efficiency of cancer screening in real-world settings depend on many factors, including test sensitivity and specificity. Outside of select experimental studies, not everyone receives a gold standard test that can serve as a comparator in estimating screening test accuracy. Thus, many studies of screening test accuracy use the passage of time to infer whether or not cancer was present at the time of the screening test, particularly for patients with a negative screening test. We define the accuracy assessment interval as the period of time after a screening test that is used to estimate the test’s accuracy. We describe how the length of this interval may bias sensitivity and specificity estimates. We call for future research to quantify bias and uncertainty in accuracy estimates and to provide guidance on setting accuracy assessment interval lengths for different cancers and screening modalities.
AB - The effectiveness and efficiency of cancer screening in real-world settings depend on many factors, including test sensitivity and specificity. Outside of select experimental studies, not everyone receives a gold standard test that can serve as a comparator in estimating screening test accuracy. Thus, many studies of screening test accuracy use the passage of time to infer whether or not cancer was present at the time of the screening test, particularly for patients with a negative screening test. We define the accuracy assessment interval as the period of time after a screening test that is used to estimate the test’s accuracy. We describe how the length of this interval may bias sensitivity and specificity estimates. We call for future research to quantify bias and uncertainty in accuracy estimates and to provide guidance on setting accuracy assessment interval lengths for different cancers and screening modalities.
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U2 - 10.1158/1055-9965.EPI-22-0232
DO - 10.1158/1055-9965.EPI-22-0232
M3 - Article
C2 - 35916602
AN - SCOPUS:85135596490
SN - 1055-9965
VL - 31
SP - 1517
EP - 1520
JO - Cancer Epidemiology Biomarkers and Prevention
JF - Cancer Epidemiology Biomarkers and Prevention
IS - 8
ER -