What does the specificity mean?
Definition of specificity : the quality or condition of being specific: such as. a : the condition of being peculiar to a particular individual or group of organisms host specificity of a parasite. b : the condition of participating in or catalyzing only one or a few chemical reactions the specificity of an enzyme.
What does specificity mean in biology?
Biological specificity is the tendency of a characteristic such as a behavior or a biochemical variation to occur in a particular species.
What is gene specificity?
Gene specificity is defined as the mutual information between the tissues and the corresponding transcript, allowing detection of either housekeeping or highly specific genes and clarifying the meaning of these concepts in the literature. Tissue specialization is measured by average gene specificity.Jul 15, 2008
What is specificity psychology?
n. 1. the quality of being unique, of a particular kind, or limited to a single phenomenon. For example, a stimulus that elicits a particular response is said to have specificity.
What is the standard of specificity?
The specificity of a test is defined in a variety of ways, typically such as specificity being the ability of a screening test to detect a true negative, being based on the true negative rate, correctly identifying people who do not have a condition, or, if 100%, identifying all patients who do not have the condition ...Nov 20, 2017
What is specificity give an example?
The fact, condition, or quality of being specific. Specificity is the act or quality of being exact. An example of specificity is giving the gps coordinates for your house to those invited over for a party. The state of being specific rather than general.
What is human-specific?
In this report we use the term human-specific gene when referring to a gene impacted by one or more genetic alterations, which seem to have happened after divergence from non-human primates (usually proposed by genomic comparison with chimpanzee) and result in the emergence of human-specific features.Nov 22, 2019
How many human-specific genes are there?
It has been estimated that the human genome has as many as 168 human-specific genes (2).Sep 22, 2009
What genes are unique to humans?
One such unique human gene is HYDIN2. It first appeared around 3.1 million years ago, as a duplicate of an existing gene called HYDIN. During the duplication process, “the head got chopped off and the tail got chopped off,” explains Max Dougherty from the University of Washington.Oct 13, 2015
What is sensitivity and specificity in psychometrics?
Sensitivity illustrates how often a screening tool accurately identifies children suspected to be at risk for a developmental disorder, such as autism. Specificity illustrates how often a screening tool accurately rules out children not at risk (i.e., those who meet typical developmental milestones).Mar 13, 2014
What is sensitivity and specificity?
Sensitivity refers to a test's ability to designate an individual with disease as positive. A highly sensitive test means that there are few false negative results, and thus fewer cases of disease are missed. The specificity of a test is its ability to designate an individual who does not have a disease as negative.
What is good sensitivity and specificity psychology?
A perfect predictor would be described as 100% sensitive (i.e. predicting all people from the sick group as sick) and 100% specific (i.e. not predicting anyone from the healthy group as sick); however, theoretically any predictor will possess a minimum error bound known as the Bayes error rate.
What are some treatments for cancer?
Many procedures and drugs are available to treat cancer, with many more being studied. Some are "local" treatment s like surgery and radiation therapy, which are used to treat a specific tumor or area of the body.
What is systemic treatment for cancer?
Drug treatments (such as chemotherapy, immunotherapy, or targeted therapy) are often called "systemic" treatments because they can affect the entire body. Learn about the most common types of treatment for cancer here. Surgery.
Why is cancer treated?
Why it's done. The goal of cancer treatment is to achieve a cure for your cancer, allowing you to live a normal life span. This may or may not be possible, depending on your specific situation. If a cure isn't possible, your treatments may be used to shrink your cancer or slow the growth of your cancer to allow you to live symptom free ...
What is the most common cancer treatment?
Any cancer treatment can be used as a primary treatment, but the most common primary cancer treatment for the most common types of cancer is surgery. If your cancer is particularly sensitive to radiation therapy or chemotherapy, you may receive one of those therapies as your primary treatment. Adjuvant treatment.
How does the immune system fight cancer?
Immunotherapy. Immunotherapy , also known as biological therapy, uses your body's immune system to fight cancer. Cancer can survive unchecked in your body because your immune system doesn't recognize it as an intruder. Immunotherapy can help your immune system "see" the cancer and attack it. Hormone therapy.
Where does radiation come from?
Radiation treatment can come from a machine outside your body (external beam radiation), or it can be placed inside your body (brachytherapy). Bone marrow transplant. Your bone marrow is the material inside your bones that makes blood cells from blood stem cells.
What is adjuvant therapy?
Adjuvant treatment. The goal of adjuvant therapy is to kill any cancer cells that may remain after primary treatment in order to reduce the chance that the cancer will recur. Any cancer treatment can be used as an adjuvant therapy. Common adjuvant therapies include chemotherapy, radiation therapy and hormone therapy.
How does cryoablation work?
Cryoablation. This treatment kills cancer cells with cold. During cryoablation, a thin, wandlike needle (cryoprobe) is inserted through your skin and directly into the cancerous tumor. A gas is pumped into the cryoprobe in order to freeze the tissue. Then the tissue is allowed to thaw.
What is the goal of surgery?
Surgery. The goal of surgery is to remove the cancer or as much of the cancer as possible. Chemotherapy. Chemotherapy uses drugs to kill cancer cells. Radiation therapy. Radiation therapy uses high-powered energy beams, such as X-rays or protons, to kill cancer cells. Radiation treatment can come from a machine outside your body ...
What are the side effects of a syringe?
The most common side effects seen with targeted therapies are diarrhea and liver problems, such as hepatitis and elevated liver enzymes. Other side effects seen with targeted therapies include: 1 Skin problems (acneiform rash, dry skin, nail changes, hair depigmentation) 2 Problems with blood clotting and wound healing 3 High blood pressure 4 Gastrointestinal perforation (a rare side effect of some targeted therapies)
What is targeted cancer therapy?
Targeted cancer therapies are drugs or other substances that block the growth and spread of cancer by interfering with specific molecules ("molecular targets") that are involved in the growth, progression, and spread of cancer. Targeted cancer therapies are sometimes called "molecularly targeted drugs," "molecularly targeted therapies," "precision ...
How do hormones help cancer?
Hormone therapies slow or stop the growth of hormone-sensitive tumors, which require certain hormones to grow. Hormone therapies act by preventing the body from producing the hormones or by interfering with the action of the hormones. Hormone therapies have been approved for both breast cancer and prostate cancer.
Can hormone therapy be used for prostate cancer?
Hormone therapies have been approved for both breast cancer and prostate cancer. Signal transduction inhibitors block the activities of molecules that participate in signal transduction, the process by which a cell responds to signals from its environment.
What is precision medicine?
They are a cornerstone of precision medicine, a form of medicine that uses information about a person’s genes and proteins to prevent, diagnose, and treat disease. Many targeted cancer therapies have been approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to treat specific types of cancer. Others are being studied in clinical trials (research ...
How to contact NCI for cancer?
Alternatively, call NCI's Cancer Information Service at 1-800-4-CANCER (1-800-422-6237) for information about clinical trials of targeted therapies.
Can monoclonal antibodies kill cancer cells?
Monoclonal antibodies that deliver toxic molecules can cause the death of cancer cells specifically. Once the antibody has bound to its target cell, the toxic molecule that is linked to the antibody—such as a radioactive substance or a poisonous chemical—is taken up by the cell, ultimately killing that cell.
What are some examples of cancer?
Not every change in the body’s tissues is cancer. Some tissue changes may develop into cancer if they are not treated, however. Here are some examples of tissue changes that are not cancer but, in some cases, are monitored because they could become cancer: 1 Hyperplasia occurs when cells within a tissue multiply faster than normal and extra cells build up. However, the cells and the way the tissue is organized still look normal under a microscope. Hyperplasia can be caused by several factors or conditions, including chronic irritation. 2 Dysplasia is a more advanced condition than hyperplasia. In dysplasia, there is also a buildup of extra cells. But the cells look abnormal and there are changes in how the tissue is organized. In general, the more abnormal the cells and tissue look, the greater the chance that cancer will form. Some types of dysplasia may need to be monitored or treated, but others do not. An example of dysplasia is an abnormal mole (called a dysplastic nevus) that forms on the skin. A dysplastic nevus can turn into melanoma, although most do not. 3 Carcinoma in situ is an even more advanced condition. Although it is sometimes called stage 0 cancer, it is not cancer because the abnormal cells do not invade nearby tissue the way that cancer cells do. But because some carcinomas in situ may become cancer, they are usually treated.
Why is cancer a genetic disease?
Genetic changes that cause cancer can happen because: of errors that occur as cells divide.
What is cancer in the body?
The Definition of Cancer. Cancer is a disease in which some of the body’s cells grow uncontrollably and spread to other parts of the body. Cancer can start almost anywhere in the human body, which is made up of trillions of cells. Normally, human cells grow and multiply (through a process called cell division) to form new cells as ...
How to get rid of cancer cells?
tell blood vessels to grow toward tumors. These blood vessels supply tumors with oxygen and nutrients and remove waste products from tumors. hide from the immune system. The immune system normally eliminates damaged or abnormal cells. trick the immune system into helping cancer cells stay alive and grow.
Where do cancer cells travel?
Cancer cells can break away from the original tumor and travel through the blood or lymph system to distant locations in the body, where they exit the vessels to form additional tumors. This is called metastasis.
Is metastatic cancer the same as primary cancer?
Metastatic cancer has the same name and the same type of cancer cells as the original, or primary, cancer. For example, breast cancer that forms a metastatic tumor in the lung is metastatic breast cancer, not lung cancer. Under a microscope, metastatic cancer cells generally look the same as cells of the original cancer.
What is cancer caused by?
Cancer is a disease caused when cells divide uncontrollably and spread into surrounding tissues. Cancer is caused by changes to DNA. Most cancer-causing DNA changes occur in sections of DNA called genes. These changes are also called genetic changes.
What is a case manager?
Case manager. A health care professional, often a nurse with experience in cancer, who helps coordinate the care of a person with cancer before, during, and after treatment.
How long does cancer last after treatment?
This term is sometimes used when a person's cancer has not returned for at least five years after treatment. However, the concept of “cure” is difficult to apply to cancer because undetected cancer cells can sometimes remain in the body after treatment, causing the cancer to return later, called a recurrence.
Can a biopsy show cancer?
The removal of a small amount of tissue for examination under a microscope. Other tests can suggest that cancer is present, but only a biopsy can make a definite diagnosis.
What is the purpose of chemo?
The use of natural, synthetic (made in a laboratory), or biologic (from a living source) substances to reverse, slow down, or prevent the development of cancer. Learn more about chemoprevention. Chemotherapy.
What is a confounding variable?
Confounding variable. A factor in a scientific study that wasn’t addressed that could affect the outcome of the study, such as smoking history in a study of people with cancer. Control group. A group of individuals who do not receive the treatment being studied.
What is EFS in health care?
More information is available at HealthCare.gov. Event-free survival (EFS) The measure of time after treatment that a group of people in a clinical trial has not had cancer come back or get worse.
What is the treatment for cancer?
Immunotherapy. A type of cancer treatment designed to boost the body's natural defenses to fight the cancer. It uses materials made either by the body or in a laboratory to improve, target, or restore immune system function. It may also be called biologic therapy.
