Industrial corporations and military organizations which pollute the environment would be seen as culpable. Further, drug manufacturers and medical enterprises engaged in surgery have far less to gain by focusing blame for cancer on toxins. Although doctors deliver the results of diagnostic tests with God-like authority, there is a substantial body of health science literature devoted to the measurement of error rates. Women under 50 are being convinced to begin having routine mammogram tests. Readers need to understand some of the vocabulary associated with measurement of diagnostic error in order to fully comprehend the danger.
Sensitivity is the accuracy measure associated with false negative error.
A highly sensitive test will have a low false negative error rate. Specificity is the accuracy measure associated with false positive error. A highly specific test will have a low false positive error rate. I have earlier used the phrase annual incidence in this document. Usually it is reported as annual cases per 100,000 members of a population.