| >Also, you've misunderstood: the 455 people is not the number of people who would die with colon cancer -- it's the number of perfectly healthy people you'd need to screen to prevent one case. No. I haven't. If we don't do any colonoscopies, that 1 in 455 who develops colorectal cancer will die (as my uncle did) if the cancer isn't diagnosed early enough. Don't want to go through the "trouble" of a colonoscopy after 50 years of age? Then don't. If so, I hope that you or anyone you love isn't that 456th person. Yes, Anecdotes aren't data. However, that 1 in 455 is a statistic and what are statistics? Data based on aggregations of anecdotes. I mentioned my uncle not because I want to pull your heartstrings. Rather, it's because while it's a simple thing to look at data and statistics, it's easy to forget that such data (at least in this case) breaks down in to anecdotes just like that one -- e.g., dead and/or very sick people -- who wouldn't be sick or dead with appropriate screenings. If you don't care that some people will die without colonoscopies, that's your prerogative. I hope that attitude doesn't keep you or those you love from identifying potential colorectal cancer before it's too late. That you don't care about others getting sick and dying[0] from the fourth leading cause of cancer deaths in the US, says something. Not sure what though and I won't speculate. I'm sure that the your full-throated support for not doing colonoscopies is cold comfort to the (~36-56/100,000 Americans) ~118,000-185,000 actual, real people who develop colorectal cancer per year. I'll say it one more time -- there are real people represented in that data. People who suffer and die every day. And if we did fewer colonoscopies, more of those people would, in fact, die, because their cancer wasn't diagnosed at all/soon enough. And so I have to put on my Quincy, M.E.[1] mask and ask: People are dying, doesn't anyone care? Is it correct to say that you don't care, or am I missing something? It would be easy for me to just wish colorectal cancer on you and then ignore you, but I don't want you to get colorectal cancer (or cancer of any kind for that matter). Dying of cancer is a slow, agonizing, incredibly painful way to die and should be avoided as much as possible. If you have a family history of colorectal cancer, please, please start having colonoscopies every two-five years starting at age 45. If you don't, please do so every five years or so starting at age 50. Or not. It's your life and (eventually) your funeral. That's up to you. [0] https://gis.cdc.gov/Cancer/USCS/#/Trends/ [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quincy,_M.E. Edit: Fixed references and closed emphasis asterisk. |