With the odds of about 1 in 2 people getting cancer at some point in their lives, why isn’t it protocol for everybody to get screened for cancer of all types more often? Like maybe every few years starting at the age of twenty? It seems most times it get caught is when somebody is complaining of a symptom, often times too late.
In: Biology
As a survivor, there’s a couple reasons.
1, cancer often won’t show up in normal tests such as blood tests. The only way to really be sure is to do advanced imaging techniques and biopsies. 2, Those scanning machines are prohibitively expensive, and use a ton of electricity. On top of already long lines of patients waiting for scans who already know they have cancer. 3, Those advanced imaging techniques use CT machines and radioactive isotopes to measure sugar uptake by cells in your body that are cancerous (or normal organ behavior). CT scans work by shooting the patient with radiation. If you do this enough to someone, you’re actually *increasing* the likelihood of them getting cancer later on in life, which kind of defeats the whole purpose.
Latest Answers