How often do full-body MRIs find cancer?

Re:How often do full-body MRIs find cancer? by n8henrie on Sunday February 15, 2026 @09:31AM (#47023977)

Not to mention the malpractice risk and potential for extra income, which -- depending on where you live -- may strongly (if subconsciously) influence your physicians interpretations and recommendations.

Do you think a doctor is more likely to call something "possible cancer" and recommend that you either have a specialist do a biopsy (keeping in mind that many of these will be... hard to reach) or at least have a follow up MRI in 3, 6, 9 months?

Or tell you it's "pretty unlikely to be cancer, I don't think we need to worry about it" and then get sued for 20M when they are wrong about 1 in 100 cases (not to mention missing out on all the potential income from above).

At least in the US, the incentives here are grossly misaligned.

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Re:How often do full-body MRIs find cancer? by masterlee_fn on Sunday February 15, 2026 @02:19PM (#47026546)

Incentives shape behavior in every industry, including medicine. Systems drive outcomes.

That is exactly why builders focus on owning aligned systems, not depending on broken ones. More on this at foundniche.com

[ Parent | on HN ]