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Some cancers 'better left undiscovered', Medical Journal of Australia says
- dekhn 7y agoThis isn't really controversial. If your goal is to reduce total expenditures while maximizing health outcomes, you learn pretty quickly that while screening can detect many cancers, it does not mean you need to take action to maximize health outcomes. In particular, if a particular cancer doesn't proceed to malignancy, but you do surgery, the patient has a slightly higher risk of various problems (because surgery and hospitalization carry their own risks). People often think "if there's even a tiny chance an intervention could make a difference, we should do it!" without regards for cost or total efficiacy.