The following article came up on my feed, and about which the following commentary pertains:
(you can find that article here).
This is an important advancement. We have this testing available in my practice. They are seeking FDA approval likely criteria age over 50 with cancer risk, family history of cancer. When FDA approved, there’s a good chance of insurance coverage. Right now cash price, I think, is about $900.
Important takeaways:
Has a false positive rate of only 0.5% making this test very accurate. Has 90% abilities to localize area of cancer making follow up testing more successful.
Test works by detecting cancer DNA shed in your blood. Different cancers shed at different rates making some easier to detect than others. Also a stage I cancer sheds less than a stage IV making the stage I more difficult to detect.
I do not recommend testing without the support of your physician.
You need to consider psychologically how you will hold up with this information. Especially if you are that .05% false positive or the 10% can’t localize source of cancer.
All said and done I do think for many people this is a great tool to decrease your cancer mortality risk.