The advent of routine cancer tests and screenings has saved numerous lives throughout the world, but early detection of abnormal cells isn’t always a good thing. Not all cancer cells are the same, nor do they pose equivalent risks. Oftentimes, humans can go their entire lives without ever knowing a growth is there, and they’re not harmed by its presence in the body.. In benign cases like this, detection, diagnosis and treatment – including chemotherapy, radiation and surgery – has the potential to do far more harm than good. Now, new research in Australia once again suggests our eagerness for early detection has become a problem. For the first time anywhere in the world, scientists there have calculated the risk of ‘overdiagnosing’ five different cancers. This is an incredibly difficult problem to quantify, since most of the time, doctors have no idea when a patient has been overdiagnosed; even […]
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