>But it would be wrong--and unfair--if right-sized people were denied or discouraged from aggressive treatment because the population as a whole had other healt

>But it would be wrong--and unfair--if right-sized people were denied or discouraged from aggressive treatment because the population as a whole had other health issues. Everyone should be discouraged from choosing treatment that does more harm than good, which (unfortunately) is practically the norm for cancer treatment in the US. If a treatment is described as "aggressive", it is usually inappropriate - aggression is rarely motivated by a thoughtful and careful consideration of the facts. The fear of cancer is wholly understandable, but it often leads to avoidable harm. We're very good at identifying tumours and suspicious cells, but we're very bad at predicting which of those will actually develop into serious disease. As a result, far too many patients are being subjected to painful and risky treatments with life-altering side-effects for no clear clinical benefit. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4322920/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4322920/