[eppp]

Ive watched people die of cancer. I do not want to die of cancer. Early detection and treatment increases the chances of a better outcome. What is a normal person supposed to do exactly to avoid this terrible fate when doctors say nothing works and you should just yolo it?

[brnt]

Accept that you cannot prevent everything bad happening in life.

Doctors don't just say it, evidence bears it out. Screening detects way more false positive than true positives. Following everything up is simply not possible, unless you have tons of money and basically making your life about prevention and little else.

[nradov]

Everybody has to die of something. If you don't die of something else first then you'll eventually die of cancer.

There is good medical evidence to support colorectal cancer screening so go ahead and get that (along with other recommended preventive care services) if you meet the criteria.

https://www.healthcare.gov/preventive-care-adults/

Obesity and insulin resistance (type-2 diabetes) greatly increase the risk of many types of cancer. Don't overeat, don't get fat, and exercise enough to keep your metabolism working well.

[daveguy]

Follow the currently recommended standard of preventative care. They check for the most likely indications of the most likely cancers. An indication from your DNA is valid when it informs a new course of care. We don't know many of those markers, and family history can tell if those should be checked.

[adamredwoods]

Your DNA is not guaranteed to mutate into something cancerous that spreads and mutates. I do think there are things humans can do to avoid carcinogens, but remember, bananas give off radionuclides.

[olivermuty]

Avoiding alcohol is gonna be a whole lot better to avoid cancer than not eating bananas

[Retric]

Bananas don’t actually linearly increase your radiation risks because the body maintains homogeneous with relation to potassium. Banana equivalent dose is a misleading analogy not medical advice.

Critically, risks are cumulative so the chances of cancer depend not on individual events taken in isolation but multiple events combined, and many of them are under your control.

[adamredwoods]

If we're getting critical here...

>> and many of them are under your control

This is the societal problem with cancer. If someone gets cancer I'm guessing it might be an incorrect reaction for one to think it was the person's "fault", but the reality is cancer just happens, and it's not a modern phenomena. No one can control the type of cancer they get and no one can control the (unaided) outcome.

My banana comment was partly in jest, but as an example that ionized radiation is found everywhere, and our body is set up to protect, remove, and repair broken DNA on a regular basis.

[Retric]

Nothing is 100% under your control.

But there’s a great number of things that increase risks of cancer to the point where you can be well below average cancer risks.

[adamredwoods]

Agreed, but if you do healthy habit X, Y, and Z, can you formulate and rely on those risks assessments? What was the risk of the person who smoked cigarettes all their lives yet didn't die of cancer? Should we calculate the risk score of a child with leukemia?

Cancer is scary, because there always looms the unknown causes. Heart disease, less scary, because people have much more control through healthy habits. Cancer, not as much.

[peddamat]

There are certain mutations like MSH6 which pretty much guarantee that you are going to die of cancer unless you are extremely proactive.

[Spooky23]

My wife fell victim to metastatic melanoma and we lost her a little over a year ago. She previously had a cancerous mole removed on her shoulder that was detected within days of appearing.

She was 5 years out. By all reasonable accounts, she was clear of cancer and had a low risk of recurring. Until it did.

I say this because cancer is fundamentally a numbers game. Very few cancers can be prevented by medical intervention and some of the common ways to prevent certain cancers (HPV vaccines) are controversial, because society is stupid.

So you take your 23andMe, and find out you have a 50% increased risk of developing cancer of some sort. Now what? Do you know what that really means? Do you go to your doctor? What do they say? Do you decide you’re gonna die anyway and embrace van life? Do you go buy squid ink from some Instagram quack for $50/oz?

In business we make a distinction between data and information. This is data that creates anxiety with no purpose.

In my wife’s case, what should she have done? She had elevated, low risk for developing melanoma within 5 years. We knew that, she knew that. Ultimately, cancer is about math and risk. Reduce risk if you can - stop drinking and smoking. The variables you can’t control are fate. Worry won’t affect them, but will affect you.

[refurb]

It's like anything else in life - you do your best.