|
|
|
|
|
|
by shostack
4038 days ago
|
|
|
Your third point is really interesting. Personally, I'd love to know if I had cancer one way or another. Even if the advice was "let's watch this, and it may not turn into anything" the mere fact that it is known to exist can make sure my doctor is monitoring everything they can to do their best to get ahead of things if it starts going down a bad path. I'd rather have the knowledge than not, but I know that doesn't always make sense from a large statistical POV. Simply knowing you have a certain type of cancer though could also prevent misdiagnosis for other things with similar/related symptoms. Beyond that, if I knew I had a certain type of cancer, you can bet your ass I'd do whatever my doctor recommended to reduce my risk for the future. So it could be a great way to convince people to live a healthier lifestyle (albeit out of fear) which I'd be willing to bet would cause them to live longer potentially than if they had not made lifestyle changes. |
|
|
>So it could be a great way to convince people to live a healthier lifestyle (albeit out of fear)
That fear can't be discounted. Anxiety leads people to have symptoms of anxiety - which are very significant from a medical point of view and a quality of life point of view.
Take a look here:
https://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/a-skeptical-look-at-scr...
>Another doctor wrote about the opposite experience: his patient had insisted on testing. He was diagnosed with low-grade localized cancer, the kind that can be observed without treating. But he couldn’t face living with the knowledge that he was harboring an untreated cancer. He was afraid of surgery and opted for radiation treatment. He developed radiation proctitis and had rectal pain and bleeding for years. He became impotent and lost bladder control. He told his doctor he would rather be dead than live wearing adult diapers.
>Prostate cancer is very common but isn’t always harmful. It is found in 80% of autopsies where the men died of something else. Many more men die with prostate cancer than because of it.