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
1) Not all cancers will kill you.
2) Some cancers could kill you, but probably won’t get that far before you die of something else.
3) Unnecessary screenings can actually harm patients by misidentifying benign processes that then get further worked up (tests, biopsies, stress, cost, possible surgeries) before realizing they’re not an actual problem.
4) We don’t have effective, affordable screenings for all cancers.
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