I'm a pathologist. "This is superior to even the pathologists," Castro said. This is a stupid statement and a ridiculous conclusion in the linked article. L

I'm a pathologist. "This is superior to even the pathologists," Castro said. This is a stupid statement and a ridiculous conclusion in the linked article. Let's talk about why this is a shitty conclusion. 1. This study was looking at protein markers on cells that were aspirated out of stomach masses and comparing the results to the pathology report. This thinking completely discounts the other actor in the scenario, the gastroenterologist who is doing the aspiration by endoscopy. If you give me a sample with cancer, I'm going to report it. However, the GI doc has to sample it and he has to give me a decent sample to work with. If he does not biopsy your cancer, I can't call it. I don't practice faith-based medicine. The thing is though, I spend a not-insignificant portion of my days in procedures just like this immediately assessing the material (looking at it under the microscope) and can tell the GI if he is sampling the material, or if it is enough for us to make the diagnosis. He usually knows if it is cancer before I leave the room (and it is a lot shorter than even 60 minutes). 2. This small device has detected a single type of cancer in pre-screened patients, that is patients who have a reason to have this done (maybe they're just having a little stomach pain, or maybe they've been vomiting blood and have had a 20 pound weight loss in the past 3 months). Try screening the general population and let me know how your device fares. It is not portable. It required an entire endoscopy suite, expensive endoscopy equipment, and a highly trained (multiple years of clinical fellowship) operator. You ain't gonna pull this off in a rural village in Africa (and let's face, what's the point of that, you don't have anything to treat it with). Plus you were directly sampling the tumor mass with a needle. I do this all damn day! I don't really have much problem calling cancer, or even better, telling docs that masses are benign if someone is able to stick a needle in something. Wake me up when you can diagnose any form of cancer by sampling tumor cells circulating in the peripheral blood (actually we are probably closer to that than you think!). 3. For lesions of the stomach, aspirating the lesion is a shitty way to make the diagnosis. Forceps biopsy is a much better way and that is the way this type of cancer is going to be diagnosed in the vast majority of patients. So if you are already there with your endoscopy, just get a goddamn biopsy already.