Many Advances In Early Detection Are Being Reported. Make Sure To Take Advantage Of These.

In an earlier post, we recommended aggressively perusing early cancer detection. There is an unfortunate trend away from early screening. This is probably due to the insurance companies. They look at costs of medical care rather differently.

For them, the best possible outcome, cost wise, is that you suddenly drop dead. (Remember that over half the time the first symptom of heart disease is death. No meds, no stents; just dead.)  You would suppose that it would be in their best interests to pursue prevention, but they have apparently decided otherwise. However, if the doc prescribes the tests, they sometimes have to pay. Also, if no one will prescribe the tests, you can get them and pay for them yourself. Would if be worth it to know you are cancer free? Or that you have a cancer, but it has been detected at such an early stage that it poses no threat and is easily cured? To many, this would be worth the cost—around $1000. Consider what other stuff costs.

Curable Cancers

These cancers are usually curable if caught early, but usually fatal if they reach the metastatic stage (meaning the cancer has spread to other location).

Prostate – 100% curable if caught early.

Breast – 100% curable if caught early.

Malignant Melanoma – 90% curable if caught early.

Bladder Cancer – 88% curable if caught early.

Colorectal cancer – 92% curable if caught early.

Detection Today

Today, prostate cancer is detected by a blood test for PSA. The change is more important than the level, so multiple readings are usually needed. Don’t be misled; done well – coherent regular screening – this is a good test.

Breast cancer is usually detected by self-examination and mammograms. There are better tests but mammograms are widely available. It is how the results are used that matters most.

Malignant melanoma is detected by inspection. Inspect everywhere. This serious skin cancer frequently occurs in areas that never see any sun. (I found one between the toes of a young woman; well actually she found it and asked about it.)

Bladder and colorectal cancer, as well as several other cancers, can be detected via a full body scan and virtual colonoscopy.

These detection techniques are pretty good, but breakthroughs are just around the corner

Detection of the Future

We reported here about cancer sniffing dogs. The accuracy for prostate cancer was near 100%. What else can dogs detect? Breast cancer, ovarian cancer, melanoma, lung, and bladder cancer. For bladder cancer, one test has the dogs at about 70% accuracy. This more or less matches the machines.

The ovarian cancer early detection results are very impressive, with one talented dog able to detect with 90% accuracy. This is a tough cancer to detect early.

Early detection of lung cancer is difficult as there are few symptoms. Dogs in one test got this one right with about 90% accuracy.

Well, if dogs can do it, surely a $500,000 machine can do it too. Maybe. Researchers at University of Adelaide, down under, claim to have done just that. This machine involves lasers, and determines the presence of certain molecules in a patients breath. They are calling it an “optical dog’s nose.” They believe such a machine could be generally available in 3-5 years. If you want to tune up your Aussie accent, here’s a nice video. Interestingly, they claim to only have gotten halfway to a dog’s sensitivity.

A British group has developed a breath test to detect esophageal cancer with 90% accuracy. They can also detect stomach cancer his way. The group has already begun clinical trials.

Finally, at M. D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, a new blood test for pancreatic cancer has been reported. In this case, they are detecting a certain protein that cancerous cells release into the bloodstream. This could potentially be used for other cancers. Since it is virtually impossible to otherwise detect pancreatic cancer at an early stage, this could be a game changer. (Well…certain ones show up on high T MRI’s and PET scanners.)

Stages of Cancer

Local

Cancers start out locally, usually from a single broken cell that is dividing in an uncontrolled manner. These are typically stem or progenitor cells, and so cancers usually occur in areas where cells frequently renew, such as the skin or intestines, and are rare in tissue that doesn’t, like heart muscle. The immune system knocks out the vast majority of these tiny tumors. As the immune system weakens, with age for instance, more of these tiny cancers have a shot at growing into larger tumors. A cancer that is progressing locally can grow to about the size of a pea, at which point it needs a blood supply. It will have to wait for a mutation for this to happen. If detected at this stage, they can usually be completely removed surgically. Even if the tumor grows considerably larger, surgery is still an option if it hasn’t spread.

Lymph Nodes.

A tumor needs several other mutations to spread. Usually the lymph nodes are the first place they spread to. Here surgery could still be an option, with the lymph nodes removed as well. This is not as likely to get all the cancer, so typically an additional therapy is applied, such as radiation of chemotherapy. These are both poisons, as is well known, and make the patient temporarily weaker. The strategy is this: Cancer cells are wimps. They are broken and so, easily killed. The healthy cells will suffer, but will survive.

Metastatic

With even more mutation, a cancer can develop satellite cancers in other parts of the body. This is called metastasis. This cannot be treated surgically, and radiation and chemotherapy are frequently  ineffective.

 

Besides testing, which we strongly recommend, bear in mind that the best defense against cancer is a strong immune system, and the route to maintaining a strong immune system is proper diet, exercise, and stress management or spiritual discipline, especially the latter. Quantitative Medicine is the best way to ensure these -proper exercise, diet and spiritual discipline – are properly done.