3 ms·
Hmm, I notice that melanoma wasn't addressed in this study; maybe "having a good look at suspicious moles just in case" doesn't count as screening, but early de
by inglor_cz 3y ago
Hmm, I notice that melanoma wasn't addressed in this study; maybe "having a good look at suspicious moles just in case" doesn't count as screening, but early detection of melanoma is considered pretty important for survival.
- yes_man 3y agoYeah, again without really having any education in healthcare, I suppose that if you find a cancer before it spreads then you can operate it out. So makes sense to get suspicious moles or generally any health issues checked
- jhugo 3y agoIt's sort of a good example of the counterpoint at the same time though: other than melanoma, skin cancer is pretty minor in general (and having it is correlated with increased life expectancy!) so combined with how rare melanoma is, I could imagine that a lot of such screening might not be associated with a net benefit.
- inglor_cz 3y ago"how rare melanoma is" For a rare disease, I have already met too many people who have/had it. Lifetime risk is about 1:100 for white Europeans, not exactly commonplace, but not that rare either. I definitely don't ignore anything that happens on my skin, that would be a stupid way to die.
- jhugo 3y agoFair, but globally it causes something like 60 thousand deaths per year (out of 55 million or so). That’s nothing to sniff at, but certainly in the realm of something you are very unlikely to die from. For comparison, cardiovascular disease kills about 17 million people per year.