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by kaidon 491 days ago
Just lost my father to pancreatic cancer as well a couple weeks ago. They caught it very early with a CT scan, performed a significant surgery followed by radiation and chemo. The chemo nearly killed him. Had a couple ok months after chemo, but then it spread and the last couple weeks were awful. Even catching this stupid cancer really early often isn't enough - I hate it.
1 comments
wolfi1 491 days ago
just a hunch, but if you can detect it via CT or MRI isn't it already too late? I guess these blood tests can detect it even earlier an then the prognosis could be significally better
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jghn 491 days ago
Not necessarily but that's the idea. Tumors will start shedding cells into the bloodstream as they start forming. These types of tests are able to identify tumor cells in a blood draw.
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allpratik 491 days ago
It's good that people are focusing on detecting such things early but unfortunately the management of any cancer basically falls into two categories - burn it or remove it. Burning maybe done via radiation, chemo etc. And treating liquid malignancies is even difficult.

I lost my absolutely fit and fine father last year to AML. I couldn't do jack shit about it and have this lingering feeling of how archiac the whole medical science - especially the drug discovery is.

No one in medical field is interested to cure any disease. All want to manage it so that pharma can get as many "subscribers" as possible to keep that money flowing in.

And such novel tests is just another mechanism to enroll new subscribers early in the journey to earn money for some more months. That's all.

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jghn 490 days ago
> No one in medical field is interested to cure any disease. All want to manage it so that pharma can get as many "subscribers" as possible to keep that money flowing in.

I can assure you this is absolutely, 100% false. *Maybe* at the highest, corporate levels. I've never been privy to that level of discourse. I have however spent a lot of time working with the boots on the ground. Never have I come across a single one who intentionally avoided "a cure".

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theshackleford 491 days ago
> No one in medical field is interested to cure any disease. All want to manage it so that pharma can get as many "subscribers" as possible to keep that money flowing in.

Care to support such outrageous claims with actual evidence or?

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