Signs of Cancer Can Appear Long Before Diagnosis, Study Shows (theguardian.com) 17
Early signs of cancer can appear years or even decades before diagnosis, according to the most comprehensive investigation to date of the genetic mutations that cause healthy cells to turn malignant. From a report: The findings, based on samples from more than 2,500 tumours and 38 cancer types, reveal a longer-than-expected window of opportunity in which patients could potentially be tested and treated at the earliest stages of the disease. The work was carried out as part of the Pan-Cancer Analysis of Whole Genomes project, the most comprehensive study of cancer genetics to date. "What's extraordinary is how some of the genetic changes appear to have occurred many years before diagnosis, long before any other signs that a cancer may develop, and perhaps even in apparently normal tissue," said Clemency Jolly, a co-author of the research based at the Francis Crick Institute in London. "Unlocking these patterns means it should now be possible to develop new diagnostic tests that pick up signs of cancer much earlier," said Peter Van Loo, co-lead author, also of the Crick Institute. "There is a window of opportunity."
Amazing (Score:5, Funny)
Next can they find a way to detect dupes only 5 stories down?
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You think slashdot is media? The problem seems to be in your corner.
And I am all for bashing media as currently being very incompetent.
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Congratulations. You found two articles concerning cancer where teams participated in the ICGC/TCGA Pan-Cancer Analysis of Whole Genomes Consortium.
Unfortunately they're two different articles concerning two different topics: (1) what genetic changes are sufficient to trigger a type of cancer and (2) how much time tends to elapse between genetic changes and a clinically significant diagnosis of cancer, but aside from those differences this is tot
Signs of many things appear way before "diagnosis" (Score:5, Insightful)
Because doctors are a very strange bunch of people, I've never dealt with a group of sloppier lazier thinkers than doctors. A "diagnosis" means that the currently accepted test finally yielded a positive. Of course if that test is based on known-faulty assumptions...
Re:Signs of many things appear way before "diagnos (Score:4, Interesting)
Because doctors are a very strange bunch of people, I've never dealt with a group of sloppier lazier thinkers than doctors. A "diagnosis" means that the currently accepted test finally yielded a positive. Of course if that test is based on known-faulty assumptions...
Agreed. If my doctor hadn't erred on the side of caution and order my ultrasound, his diagnosis of "maybe your body is just that way" could've led me into further stages of t. cancer -- which could've been lung or liver cancer (in case you're curious). And I am pretty sure he ordered the ultrasound only because I was shaking my head.
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Sorry about your medical misadventures. That we have to entrust our lives to complete strangers who see us for 5 minutes at a time is a fucking scandal IMO. But that's the way it is. What is "t. cancer"?
Are you going to be OK? What kind of surgery? Can you contact me with my dumb email?
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You don't want an imaginative doctor. Do you really want to be treated by House for your cold?
Won't necessarily make any difference though (Score:4, Insightful)
There have been trials with early detection methods for lung cancer and while these found an astounding number of very early cancers in the end the outcome wasn't any better than with the "normal" approach. It seems that, yes, sometimes you get to treat a cancer early that would have killed the patient later, but sometimes you also do aggressive treatments for cancers that wouldn't have killed them, while the treatment itself led to otherwise unnecessary deaths. In the end it was a wash, which was a very surprising outcome.
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We all have cancer (Score:2)
The main problem is, I believe, that all animals have "cancer" just about their entire lives. Cells mutate all the time, and sometimes into cancer cells. The overwhelming majority of the time, the immune system finds and kills them.
So "early detection" is, of course, very important, but it can be theoretically overdone if it was TOO sensitive. Of course, wouldn't that be a wonderful problem to have? At least we would have the option to turn the sensitivity down more, or monitor more closely.
Dogs (Score:2)
Tinfoil Hat Time (Score:1)