3 ms·
There's an interesting point made in a podcast (Huberman, perhaps) - which is that Colon Cancer could be totally eliminated as a cause of death, if we used scre
by mft_ 3y ago
There's an interesting point made in a podcast (Huberman, perhaps) - which is that Colon Cancer could be totally eliminated as a cause of death, if we used screening via colonoscopy optimally.
As in, play a thought experiment:
* First, imagine everyone in the world gets a colonoscopy every day --> obviously, all cancers would be picked up, but this is infeasible for some reasons (e.g. cost, economic impact) and suboptimal for others (e.g. iatrogenic harm, human cost).
* So, using data, apply colonoscopies more sparingly, based on risk factors such as age, genetics, family history --> if this is done right you'd be able to pick up every colon cancer in its very early stages, either at a pre-cancerous stage, or an entirely curable stage.
- oarfish 3y ago> colonoscopy every day --> obviously, all cancers would be picked up Would be the first medical test with 100% sensitivity probably?
- fulafel 3y agoWould detecting all cancer cells there be useful? The immune system being the first line of defense.
- drowsspa 3y agoWhat's the prevalence of colon cancer within the general population? Per Bayes' rule, I doubt it's enough to decrease the level of false positives to an acceptable level.
- bluGill 3y agoSince you can't eat for a day before, colonoscopies daily would also prevent death by heart attack as everyone would starve to death in a couple months.