3 ms·
No ability to prevent cancer? Ever heard of the HPV vaccine? I had polyps removed from my colon 10 years ago. There's a decent chance those would have developed
by breakyerself 2mo ago
No ability to prevent cancer? Ever heard of the HPV vaccine? I had polyps removed from my colon 10 years ago. There's a decent chance those would have developed into colon cancer by now. Prevention is a major part of reducing deaths from cancer. See also the effects of increasing taxes on tobacco products or restrictions on the use of asbestos.
- timr 2mo agoThose are the exceptions, not the rule. But also, you're wrong: most polyps would not become cancerous -- only 5%-10% ever do. As a preventative intervention on otherwise healthy people, colonoscopy is one of the most effective things we do, and it's not that effective [1]. You've also included vaccines (which I explicitly mentioned) and "taxes" (which are not medical interventions), so you've completely missed the point. [1] The NordICC trial found an impact of 0.03% on risk of death from colorectal cancer, which was insignificant. It did find an 18% risk reduction for getting colorectal cancer, but this didn't translate into a survival benefit. https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2208375 https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2208375