Re:Cheap blood test detects pancreatic cancer before it spreads
by axus on Thursday February 13, 2025 @10:09AM
(#43036609)
Theranos tried the "move fast and test blood" approach. Maybe one of the existing testing companies can find a more balanced approach in the current environment.
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Re:Cheap blood test detects pancreatic cancer before it spreads
by mapt on Thursday February 13, 2025 @11:31AM
(#43037744)
Widespread pre-emptive testing was not what Theranos tried. Defrauding investors that the technology existed for widespread, inexpensive pre-emptive testing even at small scale is what Theranos tried.
There is almost certainly gold in them hills if you dig deep enough and survey systematically enough, but Theranos started with precise coordinates, claiming they'd "found it", and demanded investors for a mine, while privately they were thinking "If we don't find it on the surface, who cares, we got paid, this is how VC works".
Re:Cheap blood test detects pancreatic cancer before it spreads
by snowwrestler on Thursday February 13, 2025 @02:35PM
(#43040288)
Theranos’ specific claim was that they could do existing tests with way less blood and way less cost. One of the ways they kept their fraud under wraps was to simply do the tests the old way behind the scenes.
So, blood tests in general were not the controversial part of Theranos.
As others have pointed out, the obstacles to large scale prophylactic blood testing are false positives, and general resistance of health insurers to fund anything not strictly reacting to disease or injury.