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A comment on Blood test that finds 50 types of cancer is accurate enough to be rolled out. Parent comment

Re:Blood test that finds 50 types of cancer is accurate enou... by TaupeRanger on Friday June 25, 2021 @01:03PM (#27633450)
That is not how medicine works, especially with cancer. Very often we simply don't know whether or not to "ignore" something. But the harms of knowing are not zero, and therefore screening can itself be a net negative. That's why a well powered RCT is required to say whether it benefits patients or not.
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Re:Blood test that finds 50 types of cancer is accurate enou... by throwawaynotmd on Friday June 25, 2021 @01:49PM (#27634058)
We have a more detailed exchange going on elsewhere in this thread, with my latest comment, addressing your more detailed points, here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27630947
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Re:Blood test that finds 50 types of cancer is accurate enou... by grahamburger on Friday June 25, 2021 @02:04PM (#27634268)
Isn't the only way to learn what things we can ignore and what things we can't ignore to do a lot more testing? Is there a better way to learn that? It seems like having a lot more data from tests is the kind of thing that would have some short term harm but massive long term benefits.
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