By oracknows on October 2, 2015.
I ve written many times about how the relationship between the early detection of cancer and decreased mortality from cancer is not nearly as straightforward as the average person even the average doctor thinks, the first time being in the very first year of this blog s existence. Since then, the complexities and overpromising of various screening modalities designed to detect disease at an early, asymptomatic phase have become a relatively frequent topic on this blog. Even more than ten years ago, I noted that screening MRI for breast cancer and whole body CT scans intended to detect other cancers early were not scientifically supported and thus were far more likely to cause harm than good. That was well over ten years ago. Now we have a company offering what it refers to as a liquid biopsy for the early detection of cancer. I fear that this is the recipe for the ultimate in overdiagnosis. I will explain.