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For decades the cancer treatment industry has beat the drum of early diagnosis and treatment. I looked into statistics a few years ago, and the drum beat appear
by landemva 5y ago
For decades the cancer treatment industry has beat the drum of early diagnosis and treatment. I looked into statistics a few years ago, and the drum beat appears correct for skin cancer.
I couldnt find statistical benefits of early diagnosis for internal cancers. The statisticians remove people from the counts if they die during treatment. So the 'early diagnosis' numbers were meaningless because they stop considering all the people in the original group.
- tialaramex 5y agoEarly diagnosis can give a false impression by increasing the time between when you're diagnosed and when you die, simply by bringing forward the former without changing the latter. However, for diseases like Hodgkins where we have what is in effect just a cure, albeit a fairly drastic one (I had Hodgkins in my mid-20s, I'm now in my 40s) clearly early diagnosis isn't just playing with the statistics. If I hadn't been diagnosed, they couldn't cure it, and then I'd almost certainly just be dead. So the answer is it's complicated.
- throwawayboise 5y agoThe cynic would say it's a scam to transfer wealth from the cancer-afflicted to the medical industrial complex. After seeing how both my parents' cancers played out, I can see the appeal of that idea. Years of discomfort, hundreds of hours spent in medical facilities (mostly waiting around) and expensive medicines and fees, and in the end you're still just as dead.
- azinman2 5y agoBut that simply isn’t true for many types of cancer if you catch early.