What is the Significance of the Area Under the ROC Curve (AUC)?
The AUC is a single scalar value that summarizes the overall performance of a test. An AUC of 1 indicates perfect accuracy, while an AUC of 0.5 suggests no discriminative power, equivalent to random guessing. In toxicology, a higher AUC value signifies a more reliable test for identifying toxic substances, which is critical for developing safe and effective exposure guidelines.