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Yes, the flaw is inherent in the accuracy or lack of it of the test method. Things like needle biopsy of the prostate can miss cancerous cells, unless you take 100 samples. An ideal tests would detect cancer markers in the blood for prostate and other cancers. I understand there is progress in that area.

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> Things like needle biopsy of the prostate can miss cancerous cells, unless you take 100 samples.

biopsies can cause a stable tumor to metastasize [0]. Sometimes medical screenings are useful, but when you’re looking for problems and don’t actually have symptoms, practitioners have an incentive to find something to treat you for. Ideally you’ll be fired as a patient, but I’ve heard of doctors who do procedures and operate every time they can possibly justify it (“he owes money to everyone.”)

[0] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4015162/

Yes, I have heard stories from a friend who had needle biopsies, he likened it to being machine gunner by a Japanese Zero in WW2. I am over 80, so I have chosen the finger for years, and when I became enlarged I took the prostate shrinking pills, since I was a widower, and I could probably only have sex with desire with a hooker, as I would not be attracted to an older woman for the same reason no young woman would be attracted to me, yes the shrink meds also made me not in the least bit horny, I do not miss it at all.

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