tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19490962.post8778338040162863362..comments2023-12-10T10:06:41.979+00:00Comments on mutations of mortality: Cancer statisticsTerry Hamblinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06346629921055055879noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19490962.post-31090105102360613032009-12-06T06:53:03.991+00:002009-12-06T06:53:03.991+00:00"Lies, damn lies, and statistics" Benjam..."Lies, damn lies, and statistics" Benjamin Disraeli<br /><br />I think some time with our diagnoses we only give patient more years of worry, not more years of life.Brian Koffmanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13250684684103918493noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19490962.post-337024668068222342009-12-05T21:15:44.393+00:002009-12-05T21:15:44.393+00:00This seems counter cultural but needs saying. Pick...This seems counter cultural but needs saying. Pick up earlier cancer cases,even if they are never going to cause ill health, and the survival figures look better, even of the day of death is ot postponed. May 2012 is a year later than May 2011 but 2 years later that May 2009, but it is still the same moment in time. <br /><br /><br />I am sure this is happening in the USA with prostate cancer.<br /><br />I am promoting dermoscop for the earlier diagnosis of melanoma skin cancer, whcih kills 2,000 people a year in Britain. The establishemnt tends to deride and ignore this technique as 'there's no evidence', but you only get evidence when someone does a trial, and you nly get a trial when someone has the motive and funds to do one. Big trials are expensive, and when nobody has a potentially profitable drug to market, funding is hard to come by.<br /><br />Also, while removing early melanomas is believed to prevent them from developing into invasive disease, of course nobody has done a proper study, since it would be unethical (and you'd get no informed consented volunteers) for a study to wait and see what suspected early melanomas did if untreated.<br /><br />So we will have to continue to rely on wisdom, that despised (as contested and hardly subject to measurement) but surely worthy value.Dissenterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00074838966097417821noreply@blogger.com