Detecting cancer early has significantly better outcomes than treating the same cancer at a later stage, even using the same cocktail of drugs. This is evident from the examples of colon and breast cancer shared in the book, with low sensitivity and high specificity tests having low positive predictive value and high negative predictive value.
Early detection of cancer has better outcomes than treating the same cancer later on down the line with the same cocktail of drugs. Thus, it is essential to have a more aggressive screening approach to tackle cancer.
Breast cancer screening tests need to be tuned to sensitivity vs specificity, with a high specificity test having a low positive predictive value, and a triple negative having a 75% chance of being caught in the bloodstream even at an early stage.