Price tags can be significant, with 44 million Medicare beneficiaries and an annual test that costs about $ 1,000 a year, as well as expensive scans and biopsies for those who test positive. I have.
He and other critics warn that the risk of unleashing the test is considerable. It may sound paradoxical, but early detection of cancer can mean as many deaths at the same time as without early diagnosis. That’s because, at least with current treatments, cancers destined to kill do not always cure if they are detected early.
And there are other risks. For example, some people get a positive test, but doctors can’t find the cancer. Others are actively treated with surgery or chemotherapy for cancer that, if left alone, will not grow or spread and may disappear.
Dr. Beer admits that blood tests for cancer are “not risk-free and cost-effective, and not all cancers can be detected.”
But he said, “I think we can expect a real impact.”
Other experts are worried.
Dr. Burnett Kramer, a member of the Lisa Schwartz Medical Truth Foundation and former director of the National Cancer Institute’s Cancer Prevention Division, fears widespread use without showing that the test is beneficial. .. When that happened, he said, “It’s hard to ring the bell.”
“We hope we’re not in the middle of a nightmare,” said Dr. Kramer.
Damocles Syndrome
Susan Iorio Bell, a 73-year-old nurse from Forty Fort, Pennsylvania, applied immediately when she saw an ad on Facebook looking for women of her age to study blood tests for cancer. It fits her claim to preventive medicine and her belief in clinical trials.
