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A Cheap and Easy Blood Test Could Catch Cancer Early (technologyreview.com)
A simple-to-take test that tells if you have a tumor lurking, and even where it is in your body, is a lot closer to reality -- and may cost only $500. From a report: The new test, developed at Johns Hopkins University, looks for signs of eight common types of cancer. It requires only a blood sample and may prove inexpensive enough for doctors to give during a routine physical. "The idea is this test would make its way into the public and we could set up screening centers," says Nickolas Papadopoulos, one of the Johns Hopkins researchers behind the test. "That's why it has to be cheap and noninvasive." Although the test isn't commercially available yet, it will be used to screen 50,000 retirement-age women with no history of cancer as part of a $50 million, five-year study with the Geisinger Health System in Pennsylvania, a spokesperson with the insurer said. The test, detailed today in the journal Science, could be a major advance for "liquid biopsy" technology, which aims to detect cancer in the blood before a person feels sick or notices a lump. That's useful because early-stage cancer that hasn't spread can often be cured.
With the amount of profit surrounding cancer treatments, this tends to be a perfect weapon for corrupt business practices. I wouldn't be surprised if we magically start detecting cancer far more than the average after this test becomes part of a routine annual physical.
Take a good hard look at cancer drug revenue patterns over the last five years. Take a look at the mark-ups, and the out-of-pocket costs. It's fucking obscene.
You want to detect and cure the real disease? Cure the strains of greed that bring forth corruption.
There's a hypothesis being developed that states that actually cancer is a lot more common than people might think, it's just that the immune system detects it and rejects most (maybe the vast majority?) of cancers before they become a clinically noticeable issue.
If suddenly we start catching cancers so early and start treatment, we might end up treating a lot of cancers that would have got destroyed by the immune system, thus possibly damaging folks far more with exposure to chemotherapy and unnecessary surgery.
I do think this theory has some basis in fact: once I had a growth on my face that I became certain was a basal cell carcinoma, the least dangerous form of skin cancer. However, before I managed to get medical attention on it, this growth got irritated, bled a little bit, and completely disappeared without even a scar. Standard treatment would have left a scar, so seemingly I was better off without any treatment.
so we can subsidize the rest of the world as usual
You're not subsidizing the rest of the world, you inveterate jackass. You're handing the pharma and insurance CEOs bundles of cash to buy their yachts. The rest of the world pays reasonable prices and moderates their corporate greed.