In terminally ill cancer patients the main problem is the lack of time the disease was found. if cancer found earlier is more readily treated, then why have the government not set up specific cancer screening clinics? i mean, if the government set it up, so that once every 3 months, people had the option to go to a cancer screening of the full body (i know some cancers such as skin cancer would be hard to find on a simple screening) surely a HELL of a lot more people would be surviving cancer? because it would be less than 3 months old every time it is found? am i being naive? i just don't understand why there is no major project or clinic for full cancer screenings? like, they could take pictures of moles, have them on file, to note changes? blood tests? and it would also find other diseases? why is there nothing like this?
There is a cost/benefit ratio to everything. One controversial study found that women getting mammograms annually after 40 only increased life expectancy by 2 weeks. Some woman added years to their life, for some others finding it early did not improve their prognosis, and for most women it made no difference. There is even less benefit to prostate screening. Most prostate cancers are either so aggressive that they are almost always fatal even with aggressive treatment or so slow growing that they will never threaten the life of the patient. Consider that cost is not entirely financial. The emotional strain of false positives or unpleasant and ineffective or unneeded chemo, radiation, and surgery can reduce patients quality of life. There are a few renegade doctors who argue the opposite and say that unless we have significant risk factors we should skip cancer screening all together. They argue that screenings are more likely to harm than help most patients.
i guess it just irritates me that everybody says "the earlier it's found the better" but there is nothing to help find it earlier.. ;/
but is the cost not worth the amount of lives it would save?
Consider the cost of funding something like that ...
