
Possible blood test for colon cancer - lichtenberger
https://news.stanford.edu/2019/04/19/possible-blood-test-colon-cancer/
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fourbits
Wake me up when toilets tells us anything we need to know about our health.

Depending on implementation it could even be scary. A companion app that gives
you AmazonFresh ads: A little low on zinc today eh? Why not try some Pumpkin
Seeds™

Is anyone working on something like a smart toilet? Sounds like something papa
Bill Gates would bank roll

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morkfromork
Theranos #2

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daguava
Hate to be that person, but it'd be Theranus

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blaisio
It seems likely that, in the next 50 years, instead of actually curing cancer,
we will just get really really good at early detection and prevention.

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odiroot
Well, my father died of pancreatic cancer three years ago. It was detected in
the last stage due to very strange positioning. He only had a few months to
live at that point.

I really wish we had better methods to detect that cancer. Maybe before it
metastasised he could be saved?

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astazangasta
Pancreatic cancer has very poor survival. 5-year survival for stage 0 to II
(i.e. early detection) is 34%. Most pancreas tumors are KRAS mutants -
undruggable and aggressive.

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drewg123
If this works, it is going to put a lot of GI doctors out of business.

The guidelines for screening after 50, plus the ACA's provision that makes
colonoscopy "free" has led to a large increase in the number of screenings
over the last 20 years [1], and I suspect that a lot of GI docs are making out
like bandits.

[1][https://progressreport.cancer.gov/detection/colorectal_cance...](https://progressreport.cancer.gov/detection/colorectal_cancer)

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mhb
I don't understand the comparison between the unpleasantness of a colonoscopy
vs. collecting a stool sample. Anyone with a dog is collecting a stool sample
every day. It is not prohibitively high on the unpleasantness scale.

Is the whole point of their work the incremental improvement of procuring
blood vs. stool?

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Syzygies
"Current recommendations suggest that everyone between the ages of 50 and 75
get a colonoscopy."

Yes, unless Kaiser Permenente is your insurer. Oh, the almighty dollar.

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adamsbriscoe
Or 10 years prior to the age of an immediate family member diagnosed with
colon cancer, whichever is earlier.

