> One study in 2020 found that 95% of asymptomatic patients had some type of "abnormal" finding, but just 1.8% of these findings were indeed cancer
So that would be 1.71% of people getting a full body MRI catching cancer early.
That seems like an astoundingly good return to me. What does late cancer treatment and lost lives cost? Many times these MRI’s.
If everyone did this, would there be any significant number of late stage cancer discoveries anymore?
Obviously, reducing the cost of false positives is important. But if 1.7% of us have cancer - wow. My guess is that percentage can be tuned up and down by demographics. So maybe there is still an argument against everyone doing it.
Many of those cancers are not harmful or would be killed ok their own. And the cost of diagnosis on the patient is not free either. It causes lots of anxiety and stress which also cause large negative health effects too. Over diagnosis is real and also bad. Medical stuff is just really hard
So that would be 1.71% of people getting a full body MRI catching cancer early.
That seems like an astoundingly good return to me. What does late cancer treatment and lost lives cost? Many times these MRI’s.
If everyone did this, would there be any significant number of late stage cancer discoveries anymore?
Obviously, reducing the cost of false positives is important. But if 1.7% of us have cancer - wow. My guess is that percentage can be tuned up and down by demographics. So maybe there is still an argument against everyone doing it.