Diagnostic Designs

At the very outset, it must be made clear that the diagnosis of cancer is irrelevant for 2 reasons. Diagnosis is always a little too late in the life of a cancer or a tumour. This is a well-established axiom now. The other point is that even if a diagnosis can be clinched and the tumour removed in toto, what of the next normal cell turning cancerous the very next day! The ordinary truth of recruitment or canceration has been potent enough to render all cancer therapies defunct, almost to start with. All diagnostic triumphs are loud trumpeting in an intellectually vacuous air, to the advantage of the proclaimers, hype up hopes of the lay, and connivance of some clear ordinary but blatant truths.

The Times of India of September 12, 2013 reported “A microscope that fits inside a needle developed – the smallest hand-held microscope that fits inside a needle and can even pinpoint those cancer cells that are often missed during operations while removing breast tumors.” A sweet breakthrough (The Times of India, July 9, 2013) declared “Sugar can help detect cancer: A new and cheaper technique to detect cancer which uses sugar to light up tumors in MRI scans. This breakthrough by researchers at University College, London will provide a safer and simple alternative to standard radioactive techniques.” A report (The Times of India, October 2, 2013) reported on the “Sharper X-ray beam developed: Scientists have generated the world’s sharpest X-ray beam 10,000 times thinner than a strand of hair. The fine X-ray beam, barely 5 nanometers in diameter allows focusing on small details.”The Times of India of November 1, 2013 reported on “New test to detect breast cancer: The test identifies 7 distinct types of breast cancer – possibly available within next 2 years – allowing personalized treatments to woman with breast cancer. The method screens for 10 key proteins that identify 7 different biological types of breast cancer. The researchers further reported that breast can be divided into 10 different forms on the basis of the patient’s genetic makeup.

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