While reviewing my emails recently and with my interest in Cancer, I eagerly opened in Safari an email received from WebMed which detailed a new blood test to scan for early cancer using DNA fragments linked to cancer.
The authors comment that if they could just "spot DNA mutations linked to cancer while ignoring natural and harmless mutations that regularly occur in humans " that the sensitivity of their tests would be greatly enhanced.
Here is a suggestion they may wish to try. Statistics in Canada tell us that cancer ranks as the number one cause of deaths for all age groups- even those in the age group 1-24 years - if we exclude accidents and suicides . Epidemiologists also tell us that roughly only 20% of all cancers are due to genetics- Now although the remainder of cancers are caused by environmental factors- e.g. 35% to food, and 25% to smoking- the major causes- . Because these "environmental cancers" require long exposure before they produce cancers it suggests to me that the incidence of the genetic causes of cancers are maybe higher in the earlier age group- 1-24 that maybe these scientist
would find that a larger fraction of DNA fragments linked to cancer occurred in this earlier age group. As a footnote if they want to reduce the number of deaths caused by smoking (number 2 cause of cancer) they may wish to have their governments make it illegal for companies to grow tobacco, produce manufacture and sell tobacco products- called cigarettes.
Regarding the number one cause of cancer- namely food- more specifically the free radicals in foods- they may wish to develop a screening test for free radicals (oxidative stress).
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