The situation is ironic, but there's an even higher level of irony in relation to cancer. In some contexts, NOT detecting cancer gives statistically better life

The situation is ironic, but there's an even higher level of irony in relation to cancer. In some contexts, NOT detecting cancer gives statistically better life quality and/or expectancy. According to current statistics, testing methods (X-ray) are slightly harmful by minutely increasing risk of cancer, and the resulting overdiagnosis of benign tumors unleashes harsh medication on some people who'd otherwise have had happily lived their lives to natural lifespan without any significant symptoms or discomfort. Plenty of literature on the internet, first few hits from Google: https://www.city-journal.org/html/stop-overscreening-cancer-14335.html https://www.city-journal.org/html/stop-overscreening-cancer-... https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4415291/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4415291/ and a recent discussion on HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16500924 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16500924, in particular https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16502246 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16502246