Is the earliest diagnosis of cancer helpful or harmful?

The diagnosis of cancer in the younger population is growing. The NY Times, in a recent article, said that there is “a clear spike in eight cancers in younger people.”

In the normal population, our immune systems clean up cancers and other problems in the background without affecting our overall health.

While we are getting more sophisticated at diagnosing these things earlier, is it best for the patient to be treated and possibly traumatized by that treatment for something that went best undiagnosed?

Under age 50, cancers in the thyroid, anus, kidney, small intestine, colorectum, endometrium, and pancreas, as well as the blood cancer myeloma, are becoming more commonly diagnosed. Other types, including breast cancer, are also on the rise.

We have known for decades that not every cancer or tumor is dangerous, and there may be many reasons for the uptick of diagnosed cancers, including the environment, but also, tumors may actually be a normal part of aging.

A study of thyroid cancer in Finland found that at least a third of adults had undetected tumors. Less than one percent of people with thyroid cancer die from it.

The incidence of thyroid cancer soared with the introduction of widespread ultrasound screening in South Korea, but deaths did not increase. It was estimated that 90 percent of the cancers that were discovered and treated in women did not need to be found.

As I have said, the more we know, the less we know, and knowing when, how, and what to treat vs. what should be ignored or left alone is more important.

For all but two of the eight cancers whose incidence has soared in younger people, death rates are flat or declining. Those two are colorectal and endometrial cancers.

Obviously, we have more to learn about cancer and how we have likely existed for millions of years with growths that become a normal part of aging.

In healthcare, I have always told our patients that less is more. Great things can be done when we are ill; however, great harm can also be done by making the wrong decisions about whether we are actually ill. We need to simplify things in our system, and rather than passing patients around to specialists, we should have a more generalist and healthy approach for taking care of the public. Our obsession with disease can be quite harmful. We need an obsession with health instead.

Check out the NY Times article below;