this post was submitted on 14 Jun 2025
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I thought cancer comes a goes all the time, wouldn't that give a lot of people false positives and a start to the cascade of healthcare?
Not really, no. It's only really cancer once the cells multiply uncontrollably. Yes, sometimes cells don't properly perform apoptosis, but there are other mechanisms that will target and kill those precancerous cells. Only once those other mechanisms fail does it become true cancer.
Besides, even if this test did come back positive, they'd still have to identify a tumor and monitor. If you have a teeny-tiny benign tumor that isn't hurting anything, the best course of action is to just leave it alone and monitor. Any surgical procedure risks spillage, which is basically human-induced metastasis.
That makes sense if I'm understanding you correctly. You might have cancerous cells, but it's not actually cancer.
Right. Like you might walk by someone with a cold, and inhale a small number of their virus particles. But your immune system can handle that. If you spend a lot of time with them face-to-face, the virus gets a foothold (because of inhaling more viruses, this part isn't a perfect metaphor) and starts multiplying, it can overwhelm the first line of defense and become an infection.
The article says they're detecting DNA shedding of genetic mutations. I think one example of this could be cancer caused by HPV should shed DNA that they could identify.
It's probably different but that's what I'm thinking from that line
Look up extra-cellular vesicles. This is where the magic is.