Grail’s podcast “The Cancer Signal” is dedicated to early detection of cancer.
The latest episode “The Role of Cancer Screening in Longevity” is well worth a listen.
A perspective that captures why early detection matters
The following quote from Doctor Ummat summarizes our conviction in the importance of early detection well:
“And as I helped manage patients’ care, I often wondered, what if we had picked this up before it happened? That would have changed the trajectory of their future. You know, it’s like that train coming down your way. Wouldn’t you want to step out of the way and prevent all of this disaster that is going to come upon you? And most of this involves picking it up early. Preventing has to begin with early detection. And the way we have medicine today, we are reactionary. We respond to an acute presentation and an acute problem.”
Why screen when there are no symptoms?
Furthermore, Dr Ummat is asked what she tells patients who have no symptoms of cancer why they should be doing early cancer screening testing.
Dr Ummat explains that cancer initially doesn’t present with any symptoms, and so a lot of times, our ability to detect disease happens after the disease has been present for a very long time.
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